Let's end the long game
by dreft26
Summary: Three years is too long, Maya and Josh both decide that they've had enough of the long game. The only question is how do they stop playing?
1. Three years is too long

_Three years is too long_

As Josh sat down at the student lounge he sighed. It was his last year at NYU and you would have thought that he'd have school figured out by now, but just a week in he'd been proven wrong. He'd always made sure that he made regular visits to his older brother's apartment and so it really made no sense that his problems arose so quickly. He should have been used to seeing her all the time, but there was something about her being in the same school as him that unnerved him so much.

It really wasn't all that bad, he reasoned, as there could have been a lot worse that could have caught his eye. Because he couldn't deny it, she'd caught his eye. Maya had definitely caught his eye and she continued to do so every time she was in the same room as him.

Quite some time had passed since their conversation back at the ski lodge where he'd finally admitted that he liked her and that he would play the long game with her. And played it he had, he'd been playing it diligently for too long now in his opinion. Now he wanted his price. He was aware that thinking of her as a price made him seem possessive, but he didn't care about that at all. All he cared about was how jealous the looks that Maya got from other people, which she sometimes returned made him. Even when he had no right to get jealous in the first place.

Why did Maya have to return their looks anyway, she said that she would play the long game right? didn't that meant that she would be there for him when they both felt ready? Could it be that she'd forgotten all about their promise? He'd thought that with how important that moment with her had been for him that she would have at least felt something strong enough for her to remember it. Or maybe she just figured he wasn't ready for a relationship with her yet. If that was the case then he would just have to show her that he was. However, his biggest fear kept him from making any sort of move towards her, what if she was finally over him?

"Can I help you?" Josh didn't know how long he'd spaced out in thought, but apparently, it was long enough for the girl that he'd been staring at to notice and to make her way over to him. God did she ever look beautiful, Josh would have given anything to just be able to ask her out confidently right there, but he just couldn't do it.

"Nah, sorry Maya I was just lost in my thoughts." He managed to get out while smiling sheepishly.

"Thinking about anything in particular?" 'you, I was thinking about you' Josh wanted to bang his head against the table in front of him. How was it that he had every speech possible ready in his head yet he was unable to voice even one of them.

"Just this test next week." Maya nodded sympathetically, Josh was thankful that Maya had no idea of his real schedule or she would have known that he had nothing going on. In fact, it would have been the perfect week to go out on a date with Maya, if only he'd been able to muster the courage to ask her out.

"Well, I've heard it helps to study instead of just staring blankly out in space. Not that I would know of course." Josh had to laugh at that, Maya had definitely gotten more serious about her schoolwork, but it wasn't that rare to find her forgetting an assignment now and then. With that she turned around and walked out of the room, most likely heading for her and Riley's shared dorm. Josh sighed, a mixture of relief and regret washed over him. He had to wonder though, how many perfect opportunities did he have to waste away before he'd manage to do something about them?

"Of course I want something to happen Riley, but he never does anything." Maya complained to her best friend. "I don't know what else I can do other than ask him out myself."

"You can't do that, you know how prideful Josh is." Riley scolded her. It really wasn't fair, Lucas was the kind of guy that was never afraid to make a move. Heck he even asked the most overprotective parent ever if he could take Riley out on a date. How was it fair that the guy that she liked never made any move when Riley was dating a guy like that. Three years had gone by and Maya's feelings were stronger than ever, however he seemed like he was still waiting for something. Or maybe he'd just stopped liking her. After all, feelings change all the time and a LOT of time had gone by.

"I know, but I don't see myself getting anywhere if I don't do it myself. I don't get how hard it can be, I basically promised him that I'd wait for him."

"Then how come you're returning all these looks from other guys if you're still hung up on my uncle?"

"Well, it's nice to know that someone likes what they see. Josh never shows me how he feels about me, he could be over me for all I know."

"Or he's just a chicken Maya, but if he is a chicken then he is the most prideful one that I know and that is not a good thing."

"Then how about this. I give him the biggest opportunity ever to ask me out, and if he doesn't do anything about it then I ask him? His pride be damned."

"I guess, that might work." Riley reasoned, it really was ridiculous that they'd both had feelings for each other for about. "So I'm guessing you have a plan for creating this big opportunity of yours?"

"Of course I do, what do you think I spend all my free time doing?" Maya boasted proudly.

"Of course you had to waste it on something like that, why couldn't you just spend that time on something like homework?" Riley sighed, she knew that with Maya's scholarship in art she was pretty much golden, but she'd at least hoped that her friend would spend a little time on her homework.

"Yeah… I had to prioritize so I guess that fell out. But this plan though, is sure to work." Maya said with a gleeful smile.

 **I had to do something with the girl meets ski lodge eventually so here it is. It won't be a short story, but I can'tguarantee that I'm going to be uploading all that often so please bear with me. Let's see how many people actually like this story.**


	2. A long game of chicken

**Well I said I wouldn't be able to update all that frequently and yet here I am. Apparently I'm full of bullshit. Enjoy**

"Okay, so tell me again why you had to have me alone in my dorm room Maya." 'So that I could get you to ask me out you idiot.' Maya Thought, but she couldn't tell him that. Luckily for her, she did in fact have a plan back when she was boasting to Riley earlier and now was the time to stick to it.

"I told you, I've run out of things to paint and so I want to try and paint you." It wasn't a complete lie, she really was going to paint him. It just wasn't the whole truth.

"Then how come you don't have any of your painting tools with you?"

"C'mon Josh, you really have to focus more when I explain things to you. That's what this is here for." She told him while indicating the camera slung over her shoulders. "I wouldn't want you getting all stiff so I figured I should just take a picture of you and then paint it later." She explained.

"Now I get it, so what do you want me to do while you take the picture?"

"Homework." At that Josh cracked up, why in the world would she want him to do homework for a picture. Something so boring made no sense to her. "No seriously Josh. It doesn't have to be homework, but you need to do something that makes you focus. I want you to completely forget that I'm there." Maya loved the look that Josh got once he got really focused on something. A big dream of hers was to have him look at her with that look.

"Okay, so you want me to completely forget that you're there?" Maya nodded and Josh knew that that would be very hard for him with how his eyes seemed to be stuck on her every time she was in the room. "I think I have something that I can do, but I'll need me computer and you have to promise me that you won't look at what it is I'm doing." That immediately had Maya curious.

"Why can't I look at what you're doing?" she asked.

"Because it's personal, now are you in?" Maya knew that she had to accept his deal, but it was frustrating because with the way he'd phrased it she couldn't help but get curious.

"Yeah I'm in." she muttered reluctantly and shook the hand that Josh now held out for her.

Josh's computer was brand new and thus it made no sense to Maya why it took so long to start up, but it seemed to take ages. Just about enough time for Josh to ask her out at least 10 times, but he remained silent. Her plan had originally been to get Josh alone in his dorm room just to give him an opportunity where he had to know that there was no way that others would hear him, but seeing as it didn't work Maya decided that she had to move on to plan B. She took of the impossibly warm sweater that she'd decided to wear that day and tossed it at his bed, before she turned her attention back to Josh who now had his computer fully booted up. She took a position that made it so that she could get a perfect view of his face yet she would still be unable to see what he was working on with the screen.

It really was incredible how quickly Josh dove into his work and Maya had to laugh a bit to herself, it was definitely not homework that he was working on. She brought her camera up to her eye so that she could check to see how the picture would turn out and once she was content with it she hit the button. She took a few more pictures of him working before deciding that she'd had enough. Josh made no motion that indicated that he noticed it when she left the room, Maya briefly wondered if she looked as focused when she was painting as he'd done there as she shut the door.

Maya took a step back to admire her own work. This painting was turning out to be one of her best, she wondered if maybe it was the thing that she was trying to capture that made her focus extra hard for this particular painting. Just as she was about to pick up her brush again to resume her painting she heard a knock on the door. She opened it to find Josh about to knock again only he stopped his fist a couple of inches away from her face.

"Hey, Riley told me you were in your room, but nobody came to open when I knocked." At that moment she decided that she was just as focused as Josh had been earlier when she was painting.

"Sorry, I didn't hear you. I was painting."

"Painting the picture from earlier?" Josh asked and she nodded. "Ooh can I see?"

"No, it's private." She said and stuck out her tongue. She half expected him to argue that it was him she was painting and thus he had a right to see it, but he seemed to have stopped in his tracks. She snapped her finger in front of him effectively bringing him back to reality.

"So, what did you want?" she asked while doing her best to block Josh's view of the room so that he couldn't see the painting.

"Oh right, you forgot this on my bed." He said handing her the sweater that she'd thrown on his bed earlier.

"Thanks, I guess I was a bit too eager to start painting." Maya bit her lip to keep herself from saying anything more. It hadn't been a mistake that she'd left her sweater at his room. Her plan B seemed to be working out pretty nicely.

"Yeah, seems like it. Also I was wondering if you'd… Sorry, just forget that last part I guess." Maya didn't want to forget that last part at all, if anything she could have done with forgetting any part but the last one.

"You sure?" she asked, trying to keep the desperation out of her voice.

"Yeah, it was just something I was thinking about and it kinda got my words mixed together, sorry about that."

"Don't worry about it." She replied as nonchalantly as possible. She'd decided earlier that if he wasn't going to make a move then she would. If there was ever a perfect time to try it then it was now. There was only one problem. Her mouth seemed to have other plans. "So I guess I'll go back to painting then, bye Josh."

She'd chickened out, and now she was so mad at herself that she couldn't even focus enough to continue painting. She'd been so mad at Josh for not giving her any signs of how he felt about her when apparently she wasn't able to tell him herself either. Damn that long game.

 **This story is actually really simple to write because I find myself in pretty much the same situation. Haha, life sucks sometimes. please tell me what you think of the story.**


	3. Prideful chicken

Josh didn't know how long he'd been working on the picture. Maya wanted him to work on something that made him forget that she was there, well that meant that he had to work on something related to her. He'd found one of his favorite pictures of her and started editing it in photoshop. Ever since Josh was little he'd always been jealous of Shawn's talent for taking pictures and so he'd started it up for himself half a year ago. It quickly became obvious to him that this was something he loved, even Shawn had told him how he'd gotten really good at it. He'd quickly made quite the collections of photo's that he proudly showed to anyone when the occasion arose. Still, there were some photo's that he didn't want to show to anyone else. Most of these were photos of Maya, photos that no one was supposed to know that he'd taken. On occasion he liked to play around with them in photoshop. While most people would argue that photoshop was too expensive Josh didn't agree. Photographing might have started of as a hobby, but he'd started to earn a little bit of money early on. Now he was even looking into the opportunities of joining Shawn's company after he'd finished at NYU, there were two big benefits to it. One, he'd be working with something that he loved doing and two, he'd be in the same city as Maya for a few more years. The second reason was the one that seemed to make it the most appealing at the moment, but he couldn't deny that that would all change if she turned him down.

Looking up from his computer he noticed that Maya was gone and so he saved the project that he'd been working on and closed it. He took a look around the room and noticed that Maya had left her sweater and he figured this would be a good opportunity for him to ask her. He picked it up and after shutting down the computer he headed down to the student lounge to check if she was there. He found Riley sitting in the couch talking animatedly to Lucas with her hands flailing around like they often did.

"Hey Riley." Josh called as he walked over to her.

"Hey Josh." She answered back as she noticed the sweater in his hands. "I didn't know that you liked those kinds of sweaters Josh, and I certainly didn't think that you'd fit such a small size."

"Very funny niece, but it's Maya's do you know where she is?"

"Yeah, she threw me out of our room because she was going to paint, but maybe you'll have more luck with her." She told him and winked at him. Sometimes it seemed to Josh that Riley had figured out how he still had feelings for Maya after all these years. She would catch him staring at Maya sometimes and give him a knowing look that always had him looking away with a slight tint of red in his cheeks.

"Yeah maybe I'll have some luck." He muttered and headed for Maya's dorm.

He tried knocking once but no one opened the door and so after trying again and waiting for about a minute for some kind of reaction, but it seemed like there was no one there. Riley had told him that she was there and so he found himself knocking once more, a little bit harder this time. He was about to do it again when the door opened and he had to stop himself from hitting Maya's head.

"Hey, Riley told me you were in your room, but nobody came to open when I knocked." Her eyes widened only slightly before they returned to normal.

"Sorry, I didn't hear you. I was painting." Josh decided that they really were the same. It was the with Josh earlier that day. He still had no idea how long Maya had been gone before I heard you.

"Painting the picture from earlier?" Josh asked and she nodded. "Ooh can I see?"

"No, it's private." She said and stuck out her tongue. Josh really wanted to argue, but then again he'd made a big point out of how what he'd been doing at the computer so though he knew she was just trying to get back at him he couldn't pursue the subject without coming off as a hypocrite.

"So, what did you want?" she asked while doing her best to block Josh's view of the room so that he couldn't see the painting. Damn she was good at annoying him.

"Oh right, you forgot this on my bed." He said handing her the sweater that she'd thrown on his bed earlier.

"Thanks, I guess I was a bit too eager to start painting." Maya bit her lip and it brought Josh's focus over to her lips. He knew he had to ask her out before he could kiss her and so he decided to take a chance.

"Yeah, seems like it. Also I was wondering if you'd… Sorry, just forget that last part I guess." He mentally swore, he'd been so sure that he would be able to make use of this opportunity, but he found himself chickening out like he'd done so many times in the past.

"You sure?" she asked and he found himself nodding before he could help himself even though he wanted nothing more than to shout the words out at her.

"Yeah, it was just something I was thinking about and it kinda got my words mixed together, sorry about that."

"Don't worry about it." She replied as nonchalantly as possible. Josh could see how she was working on something up in her head and for a while he got his hopes up. Even though he was a guy a prideful one at that he knew that if she somehow asked him out he would be overjoyed and so he found himself hoping that that was what was happening. "So I guess I'll go back to painting then, bye Josh." 'well so much for that.' He thought bitterly as the door closed.

He turned around and headed back to his own room completely missing the two eyes watching him by the end of the corridor.

 **You guys saved what could have been my worst day in several months with all your reviews and so I just couldn't go without updating the story. Let me know what you thought and who you think the mysterious eyes belong to. Hope you're all ready for christmas and I'll see you later.**


	4. The long game meets Daimon

"I chickened out Riley. I couldn't tell him." Maya told her best friend who merely nodded.

"So I guess that now you can't complain at Josh anymore?" she asked casually. She knew how Maya was and if there was one thing that Maya hated it was pity.

"No, he's still a dumbass." Maya snorted.

"That doesn't make sense Maya, he might be in the same situation as you." 'he is in the same situation as you.' Riley thought. Was she the only one who wasn't oblivious to the looks that these two kept sending each other? Sometimes it seemed that way and it infuriated her.

"But he's the boy Riley, the boy is supposed to be the one doing the asking." She told Riley wiggling her finger in front of her.

"Come on Maya! You said so yourself earlier, it shouldn't matter who's the one doing the asking so you might as well just go ahead and ask him right now." Maya looked down at her feet and muttered something that Riley couldn't hear. "What?"

* * *

"What if he says no Riley?" Riley groaned loudly and walked out the door in frustration. Maya was usually so confident in everything, but she annoyed the living daylight out of Riley once she got nervous about something.

With Lucas gone for football practice Riley had decided to try once more to push Maya to make a move with her Josh situation.

"You said yourself that you were going to try your luck yourself if he didn't after your plan right? I swear that you'll just make it harder for yourself if you keep waiting for something to happen Maya. You can't both play chicken forever, that's just sad."

"We're not both laying chicken, I am, but I have no idea whether Josh has given up on me or if he's simply over me. Doesn't he talk with that other black haired girl in his class all the time?" There was something about that girl that brought back memories of when she saw Josh trying his luck with his NYU tour guide all those years ago. This girl was his age too, what was stopping him from trying again?

"They're lab partners Maya, and you know that there is a cha…." Maya hurriedly placed her hand over Riley's mouth to keep her from talking anymore when Josh's roommate Daimon walked over to them. She definitely didn't want Daimon to know about her feelings for Josh, she didn't trust him to keep his mouth shut.

"You're my roommate's niece right?" he asked turning to Riley as he sat down. A playful smile on his face showed that he was the player type which worried Maya. Riley didn't need to get involved with someone like him.

"Yeah, I'm taken though." She proudly told him pointing to her necklace with the "L" for Lucas. Maya was often taken aback by how much Riley had grown up from the gullible girl that she'd been just a few years ago. "I'll be back in a little bit, I just want to get something to drink." She told them both and walked away with a smile on her face.

"Well she's sweet." Daimon said and smiled warmly at Maya. "You're the girl I had to flee my dorm room for aren't you?" he asked her. Maya blinked at him a couple of times before responding.

"No? Josh told me that you were out."

"Now that's just mean of him, I was studying and he came into our room basically throwing me out." That was news for Maya, she'd asked him repeatedly if it was okay that they used his room and he'd insisted all the times that it was free.

"Sorry, I didn't know."

"it's fine, what did you have him do anyways?"

"I don't know what he did actually, but I told him to do something that had him concentrating on it really hard. He said that it was private and refused to tell me what it was."

"That sounds about right," Daimon concluded, "Why did you want him to concentrate on something?"

"I'd run out of things to paint so I wanted to try painting him. I needed to take a photo of him and I didn't want a forced smile." Maya told Daimon, a slight blush rising in her cheeks.

"So, you paint?" he didn't wait for her response before continuing, "You want to know what he was doing?"

"Yes!" Maya almost shouted before she managed to calm down "Yes I really want to know, do you know?"

"Yeah I do, and I'll tell you on one condition."

"What's the condition." Maya asked, almost afraid of the answer.

"Well you have to go out with me on a date." Maya's eyes widened, she knew that he was a player, but she still wasn't prepared for him to ask her out.

"Uhm, like a date?" she asked dumbly. 'great Maya, now he thinks that you're stupid.' She mentally chastised herself.

"Yeah, you want to know what he was doing right?" he asked her and smirked.

"Yeah I guess I do. Fine, I'll go out with you, but it's only going to be this one date." She told him.

"Sure, thanks for playing." He said and stood up before walking away.

* * *

"Well he was interesting," Riley commented making her way back with a cup of hot chocolate in her hands. "So what did he want?"

"Apparently, I'm going out with him." Maya told her best friend while still in a daze.

"What!?" She turned around in her seat only to find Josh standing in front of her. She didn't know why, but she got the feeling that he was mad at her. "you do know that he's just about the biggest player on campus right?"

"Yeah I know, but don't you think that I can take care of myself Josh?" she asked.

"Of course I do Maya, I know that he won't be able to fool you, but I still don't like it." He told her. There was no mistaking it. He was mad, but not at her. As she watched Josh walk off the only thing that she was certain of was that boys made no sense to her.

* * *

 **So how do we feel about Daimon, I know that I love him so much that i just had to bring him over from one of my other stories. You guys are the best with all your reviews so keep that up. I loved hearing all your theories about the plot so keep them coming, let's see if anyone can actually get it this time, also if you like the story please favorite and follow too. Hope to update again soon.**


	5. The mind of a player

"What do you think was going on with Josh earlier?" Maya asked Riley.

"I don't know, I mean Daimon has always gotten on Josh's nerves, but this was something new." Riley knew the answer, but she couldn't just blurt out the secret that she was holding in about Josh liking her. If Maya was oblivious to Josh's feelings towards her then who was Riley to ruin it? She knew that it might push Maya to make a move, but she also knew that Josh would much rather reveal it on his own when he felt ready for it.

"He was probably only looking out for me, you know with us being quite close he probably feels the need to protect me or something. Like a brother." Maya frowned at the last part and Riley had to bite back a laugh at it, Josh and Maya's feelings toward each other were nothing like the ones that siblings had for each other.

"Well that's one way too look at it I guess," Riley commented.

"Well Josh doesn't know why I did it so I guess that is a plus. I wanna know what he was doing at his computer when I took the picture of him. Daimon said he was going to tell me if I went out with him."

"Yeah you always were too curious for your own good." Riley already knew what Josh was doing, she had walked in on him while he was editing once before. She had however closed the door before Josh realized, but he didn't notice anything going on around him anyways so it wasn't that surprising if he hadn't noticed her.

"Hey, I get something out of it and you know that Daimon doesn't stand a chance with me so I don't see how this is a bad idea." She said before leaving to get another cup of hot chocolate, leaving Riley in thought. There was a couple of things that seemed really off about the way Daimon asked Maya out. Like how he immediately left after he'd gotten Maya to agree to go out with him. She supposed that it was kind of like him announcing that he'd gotten what he wanted, as if Maya was a prize. It would fit perfectly with his personality, or what she assumed his personality was like from Josh's stories. It also seemed like he was more interested in coercing Maya to go out with him than the actual date in itself. To Riley this made no sense, wouldn't he have to plan it out if he wanted to get something out of the night? To Riley it seemed like the entire date mattered very little to Daimon at all which left one question in Riley's head. Why did he even bother asking Maya out in the first place?

* * *

"What the hell do you think you're doing with Maya?" Josh demanded as soon as he walked into the room that he shared with Daimon only to find that he was already sitting with another girl in his lap.

"Who's Maya?" the girl asked timidly.

"I'll walk you out and explain okay?" Daimon asked the girl with a sigh and lifted her out of his lap. Josh felt bad for the girl who looked like she was on the verge of crying, but this only made him madder at Daimon. He didn't understand how some people could be so heartless that they could just toss people away like it was just some game. He knew that Maya might not like him anymore, but Daimon was certainly not right for her.

"Well that's over I guess." Daimon said as he closed the door. He dusted off his pants and sat back down in his bed like nothing had happened.

"You mind answering my question from earlier?" Josh asked spitting out every word like it was venom.

"Oh Maya, yeah I asked her out. She'd single right, what's the harm she agreed and we're jut going to have some fun."

"Have some fun? So you're just going to toss her aside when you're done with her like you did with the girl from earlier?"

"That's kind of the point if I'm done with her isn't it?" Daimon asked with a smirk on his face.

"Oh I hate you so much right now, you shouldn't treat people like that. Maya is so much more than just another one of your playthings." Josh said, he knew that had he been Lucas from a couple of years ago then Daimon would have a broken nose now, but fighting was never his style.

"So it's about Maya then? You know I don't see your name on her, she's fair game to anyone. Or she was I guess, I won that game just now."

"You just don't get it Daimon, this isn't a game and you don't put your name on a girl like you own her. She's not something that you can win, she's something you have to earn. You have to earn her every day to deserve her."

"That sounds really romantic and all, but you just want Maya for yourself and you're just jealous that I asked her out before you did. Newsflash Maya is beautiful and someone was bound to see that and ask her out. She's single and free to go out with anyone until someone decides to change that" with that he'd apparently had enough of the discussion and stood up before charging out of the room.

"Sadly he's right." Josh said to himself. He was so furious with himself earlier for backing out of a perfect opportunity to tell Maya how he felt, but it was nothing compared to now. He was blaming himself for the fact that Maya was now stuck going out with the worst jerk in history. Daimon was right though, his frequent flings with random girls had definitely been getting on Josh's nerves before, but that was nothing compared to now. Josh was beyond furious and he knew that it had everything to do with the fact that it was Maya he would be using this time.

 **Happy New Year! I hope you had a nice holiday and I'm so sorry about not updating during it. I was like most of you extremely busy, but I will be making more updates, although not as frequent as I was. Tell me what you think about this one, the date is up next and I hope that you're all a excited about it as I am. Let me know if your opinion of Daimon changed in this chapter or if you'd already decided in the previous chapter that he was a jerk. Also one more question, what gender do you think I am, I'm going to be announcing it in the next chapter, but I jut wanted to know what you guys think.**


	6. The mind of Daimon

**I'm so so sorry for not updating sooner, but I was away last weekend and forgot my charger so I had to get it mailed to me. Apparently chargers are important when you're writing on a computer. Anyways I hope to get inta a rgular updating schedule where i will be releasing 2-3 chapters a week. Please enjoy this one.**

"Now before we start this date I want to keep my promise to you Maya." Daimon told Maya just after they'd headed off of campus.

"Oh yeah, please tell me!" Maya told him just barely managing to keep her feet grounded. Part of it was just her playing silly for fun, but she couldn't deny that she really was curious. Daimon smirked before his expression turned serious.

"He was editing a photo of you."

"Why would he do that?" this made no sense to Maya. She'd told Josh that he was supposed to forget that she was in the room, why then would he ever start editing a picture of her? Wouldn't that be like a constant reminder that she was there?

"Because he likes you." Daimon told her like it was the most obvious thing. "It's why he didn't want you to know. He's afraid of rejection and he doesn't know that you're head over heels for him. He had to do something that involved you because that's when he focuses the most." Daimon turned around and started walking down the street, Maya followed him.

"Why would you tell me that your roommate likes me when you've got me going out with you?" She knew Daimon was a player and therefore he obviously had a few tricks that she wouldn't know of, but this? This made no sense to her.

"Because of two things: I don't like you like that and I want you to be with Josh." He took Maya's hand and slowed down so they could walk comfortably together.

"Then why did you ask me out if you didn't like me? And if you don't like me then what is up with the hand holding?"

"I asked you out to force a reaction from the most thickheaded guy I know. Josh wouldn't man up to ask you out so I thought that I would spur him on. And the handholding? Well even though I don't like you like that you are kinda cute." He told her with a smirk which resulted in a punch in the shoulder from Maya. "I was just kidding, it's just that I want to make Josh as jealous as possible so that he can ask you out."

"You mean that he's spying on us now? That's creepy."

"Oh please, you girls are way too quick to label something as creepy when it's a guy doing it, but I bet you and that Riley girl would probably be doing the same thing if Josh went out on a date with someone."

"Now that's just not fair, we're girls and we're supposed to be stalkers."

"See now that's just sexist Maya." Daimon told her smirking which earned him another punch from Maya, but her smile told him that she wasn't really offended.

"So if this is all just to make Josh jealous then where are you taking me?" Maya asked genuinely curious. Daimon had made such a huge point out of asking her out that she'd forgotten to even ask where he wanted to take her.

"I figured we could go bowling for a little while before we head down to a nice restaurant, how does that sound?"

"Yeah I would like that, I haven't gone bowling for a long time." Daimon slowed down and Maya wondered why until she looked up to see that they'd arrived at the bowling parlor.

"I can kind of relate to Josh's whole forgetting about your surroundings thing I guess, I had no idea of where we were going."

"Yeah, not sure that's a good thing Maya, there are lots of crazy people at our school so you should probably be wary of who you let lead you around."

"Yeah there are definitely a lot of crazy people." Maya told him with a smirk.

"now you see that's not fair Maya, I would hit you, but then with me being a guy that would make me the bad guy."

"You sure I'm the one being sexist?" Maya asked him before speeding ahead to pick out her shoes.

* * *

"What you said earlier about you being the bad guy, you do know that a lot of girls already think of you as the bad guy?" Maya asked him as she passed him, she'd just earned herself a perfect strike.

"Yeah, I used to be kind of a player."

"Used to? You mean that you've stopped?" She knew there were rumors among the girls at school that Daimon had finally stopped just treating it all as a game, but she just figured he'd gotten better at keeping it secret.

"Yeah I really regret that part of my life now." He told her and he seemed serious. He seemed like he really regretted the way that he'd been acting before. Maya could relate to that, she also had a past that she kept hidden from most people. Of course, Daimon couldn't really keep it hidden when it had only stopped a few weeks ago, and so most people would still be looking at Daimon the same way for quite some time.

"Well it's good that you're trying to change, and I'll be here if you ever need help. Or just someone to keep you company."

"Hey, I told you that this wasn't a real date Maya, you can't go getting all emotional on me now." Daimon told her and picked up his ball. He bowled a perfect strike and Maya couldn't tell if the grin he had when he returned was from that or his earlier remark.

"Jerk, I take back my offer." She told him as he walked over to pick up her own ball.

Daimon was definitely a good guy Maya decided and if Josh didn't forgive him after all of this was over then she would kick him somewhere the sun would never shine. That thought brought a grin to her face and she couldn't help but wonder if Josh really was out there spying on them. She hoped something good would come out of the night. She'd already decided that she really liked hanging out with Daimon so she supposed that was something, but she had also decided once and for all that she was going to test if he was right about Josh's feelings. If he wouldn't man up the she would.

 **Okay so to all you Daimon haters, I hope you've changed your mind about him, more to come on him in the chapters to come. I have never gotten this many reviews on a story before and it really does make my day so if you want to make my day even better then go ham on the reviews please. Hope you enjoyed, see you in a few days.**


	7. I like you too

"Could you kiss me?" Maya asked Daimon

"What? Why would you want me to do that? I already told you that I don't like you and you like Josh." Daimon asked her waving his hands as if she was crazy. They'd finished up their Bowling and after 10 minutes of walking while Maya had teased Daimon about losing to a girl they'd arrived at the restaurant.

"You did say that Josh was probably watching us right?"

"Yeah, I think he's sitting at a table around here where he should be able to see us. I still think that me actually kissing you is going a bit far though, but I guss if you're that desperate to make him jealous then I'm in."

"Oh, this isn't going to be a real kiss. One of two things are going to happen." Maya told him with a smirk. "One, Josh steps out from his hiding place to stop you or you're going to put your thumb in front of your lips so they don't actually touch mine. If he really does like me like you say then he shouldn't want to let it go this far. Plus I'll be acting as if i'm not prepared for it."

"Oh okay, I'm fine with that." Daimon smiled at her and waited for her to turn around to look for Josh for a few seconds and when he noticed her turning back around he took that as his que. He reached over the table and put his hand to her cheek while his thumb found her lips. He leaned closer slowly to give Josh time to step out.

"Get your hands of her!" Daimon heard a voice nearby say before Josh rose from a table behind a big plant and walked over to them.

"This is technically just one hand." Daimon told Josh and Maya had to blink twice at the complete flip in personality, Daimon was so good that she would have had no problem believing that Daimon really had been trying to kiss her earlier if she hadn't known the truth.

"Shut up, I'm not here to talk to you anyways." Josh told Daimon now obviously pissed.

"Yeah I can see that, you were just going to babysit us from afar right?"

"I told you to shut up." he sneered and turned to Maya. "Maya, why are you going out with this guy? He only sees you as an object, you can do so much better than that."

"Oh?" Maya spoke for the first time. If Josh only knew how incredible Daimon really was then he wouldn't be saying stuff like that. She would have gotten mad if it weren't for the fact that Daimon really was a great actor. He really did seem like the biggst jerk on the planet. "And who would I go out with then? I don't see anyone else asking me out so what's wrong with me wanting to go out with a guy every once in a while?"

"But him?"

"Like I said, who else?"

"Well how about me?" Josh asked her and Maya's eyes widened. Had he really said that? She hadn't even had the faintest idea of whether or not Josh even liked her until tonight, now he'd asked her out?

"Are you serious?"

"Well, yes. I've been trying to ask you out for a while now, but I never had the courage to do it."

"And you had to choose now?" Maya asked him, but she couldn't fight the grin that was spreading.

"Well I coulnd't just let a guy like him kiss you. I don't want to watch the girl I like with another guy, much less him."

"I would love to go out with you Josh." Maya answered back. Before she heard clapping coming from Daimon.

"So I guess this is it then Maya? I had a good time, see you later." Daimon told her before his expression turned to a dull bored expression as he gathered up his things before standing up to leave. Maya knew that she wuld have to thank Daimon for this later as well as help those two patch things up. As she watched Daimon go up to try to pick up a girl sitting alone at a table she knew that that would be the last act before Daimon the player would be gone for good. She watched him shrug his shoulder when he got rejected before he started heading towards the door.

"I knew that what Emily said couldn't be true. You will always remain a player." as Maya watched Daimon freeze up she knew that something was wrong.

"You spoke to Emily?" Daimon asked his expression no longer calm and collected.

"Yeah, she told me some bullshit about you actually being a good guy now, that you'd stopped being a player. I even had to bring her with me to show her what a jerk you are. You can come out now." Josh said and a girl stepped out from the bushes who Maya guessed was Emily. She had tears streaming down her face.

"Emily..." Daimon said walking slowly towards her. Maya couldn't see his face, but his voice told her everything. He was about to start crying. She watched as the girl ran past Daimon and out of the restaurant while Daimon just stood there helpless.

"You really should try to stay with one girl instead of always trying to keep someone as a backup you know." Josh told Daimon now with a smirk on his face. It was clear that he felt no remorse over what just happened. Daimon turned around and looked at Josh. Tears were falling steadily now and he seemed to be stuck between sadness and anger.

"You really have no idea of what you just did now do you?" Daimon shouted at Josh before he ran out of the restaurant.

 **Okay first of all I should stop saying that Im going to get back into a regular updating schedule because everytime I do I end up with technical problems. Secondly I realized yesterday that I'd forgotten to reveal my gender in the previous chapter, I'm a guy. Apparently a weird guy seeing as I spend my time writing romance stories, but enough of that. Anyone wanna have a guess at who Emily is and also how do you think Maya is going to react to all of this? Hope you enjoyed and fingers crossed nothing breaks and I can update again before too long.**


	8. Emily

**I promised one of my readers that i would be updating soon so I had to keep my promise to him. I've finally gotten around to reply to your reviews although that is a bit hard to do if you're guest users I suppose. This chapter is sort of a celebration of me finally achieving 100k words on this site so I made it a bit longer for you guys.**

"I think it's about time that his stupid games finally ended up backfiring on him." Josh said smiling smugly down at Maya who frowned at him. "What?" he asked.

"I think you just made a big mistake Josh."

"What kind of mistake would that be?"

"You're wrong about Daimon, he isn't a player anymore."

"That's where you're wrong Maya. You didn't hear him talking about you yesterday back a our room. You don't get it, he was only talking about you like you were some kind of price to be won."

"No Josh." Maya sighed and shook her head. "You're the one who doesn't get it. He was only acting like the player you think he is. He was trying to make you jealous."

"Now why would he do that, he's an even bigger asshole than I thought." Just then Maya noticed that they were still standing in the middle of the restaurant and she made a motion for Josh to sit down.

"He's not an asshole and if you'll just let me finish then you'll see that too. He was making you jealous so that you would ask me out. Before you ask Ill just tell you: he actually wanted his roommate to get together with the girl that he liked."

"What about the kiss then? Don't you think that that is overdoing it a little?"

"Well that was actually my idea." Maya said and bushed a little bit at the memory.

"Did you actually want him to kiss you then? Because I thought you said that you liked me."

"No I didn't want him to kiss me, he had his thumb on my lips so we wouldn't have actually kissed. Daimon told me that you were probaby spying on us and so i suggested that he would fake kiss me to get you to come out. I just wanted to test if Daimon was really right about you liking me."

"Well okay so he doesn't like you, but he's still a player. He convinced Emily that he was just taking you out for some stupid reason that she wouldn't tell me and that he would be with her after that. Then the first thing he does after your date ends is ask out another girl."

"Of course he did. He wanted it to seem like he really was a player in front of you so that you wouldn't realize that it was all a part of his plan. Who is Emily anyway?"

"Some girl he had sitting in his lap in our dorm room the day that he asked you out."

"Well that can't be right he told me that he regretted that part of his life and that he'd stopped being a player."

"Maya, I just screwed up big time." Josh told her and stood up from the table offering her his hand.

"Yeah, you just assumed he was this big player, but don't worry about that he was a really good actor so it's not surprising that you thought he was for real."

"No, it's not that. I too had heard the rumours that he'd stopped being a player and for a while he hadn't brought a girl back to our dorm room, but I just figured that he was taing them somewhere else and that the rumours were nothign more than people talking. Then he asked you out and I kind of lost it, add to that the fact that he was sitting with a different girl in his lap when I came back in. I was sure that he was still a player. Now I know he's not and Emily isn't just another girl. I think he really likes her and that I just messed it all up for him. I need to go find Emily, please come with me?"

"Of course Josh." True Maya might have been mad at Josh for ruining Daimon's chances with Emily, but she knew that she couldn't really be mad at him. Not when he was trying to fix it.

* * *

They ended up Searching for her the rest of the night without finding her. Feeling disappointed Maya decided to just call it a night and headed of to her dorm after a giving Josh a hug. She hadn't expected to see Daimon sitting in her room waiting for her. His head was buried in his hands but he looked up when he heard the door close.

"So how is the new couple?" Daimon asked mockingly. His eyes were red and Maya could still see where the tears had been streaming down his face.

"We're not a couple yet, I think."

"You're not?" Daimon rose from his chair. "I went through all that for nothing then, damn you Josh."

"Okay calm down, it's just that he hasn't officially asked me yet, but you've done more than enough don't worry about it anymore okay? How are you doing yourself?"

"I've been better, Emily won't talk to me." fresh tears streamed down his face when he mentioned Emily.

"Yeah, we tried finding her, but we didn't find her anywhere on campus."

"Who's "we"?"

"Me and Josh, Josh realized what a huge mistake he'd made and wanted to try to fix it for you. You shouldn' have to struggle with this all by yourself you know, we really want to help. And I think Josh wants to apologize for what he did. Although, you really are an amazing actor so I'm not surprised that he thought you were still the same guy that you were in the past."

"Yeah, it was easy slipping back into my old ways, but I hated it all the time. That part of me is dead. He died a few weeks ago."

"Does this have something to do with Emily?"

"Yeah." Daimon nodded and made another attempt at wiping away his tears. "I met Emily a couple of weeks ago, back when i was still a jerk. She's in your class you know, so I hadn't seen her there during my previous years here. There was just something so incredibly cute about the short girl with black hair and brown eyes that drew me towards her. I tried to ask her out just using my cheesy pickup lines that had worked so well for me in the past, but she just looked at me like I was weird and walked away without even saying anything." Daimon didn't even seem to notice how his tears had dried up and how he had this strange glint in his eyes as he kept talking.

"I tried talking to her a couple of times over the next few days, but the result would always be the same until one time when she was about to walk away I asked her why she was ignoring me and she turned around to asnwer that she would rather be talking to a real person than someone who was just trying to escape from the real world. She walked away again, but the impression that she'd left stayed. I didn't know why, but I felt the need to try to prove myself to her, prove that I wasn't just someone who was playing around in some fake reality. She was different from the others, different in the best way. For once I had feelings for a girl that wasn't just based on shallow looks. When I realized that I shed the whole player image. One day when she was sitting at the student lounge sipping coffe while working on one of her assignments she left her computer unlocked when she went to get a refill, I snuck over to her computer and took a look at what she'd been doing. The last thing she'd done was pause the music that she'd been listening to. I noticed the name of the playlist and looked it up on my phone before leaving. Her playlist soon became everything that I listened to, you know how much you can learn about one person just by listening to their music. I noticed some of the suggested songs and decided that i would make another attempt to talk to her."

"You know," Maya cut in. " You're really starting to sound like quite the stalker now." Daimon laughed nervously before continuing on.

"Yeah, so I saw her sitting at the lounge again one day and I decided that I'd done enough waiting. I sat down opposite of her and waved until she looked up from the computer screen. I asked her if she'd ever heard of The band Hedley and she shook her head. I suggested a song and she looked it up. Her eyes lit up and she smiled, I swear it was the cutest thing in the entire world to me. I suggested a couple more songs for her and she really liked them all. I ended up leaving without asking her out, but I still had the biggest grin ever on my face as I walked away. Is that weird?" Maya shook her head.

"No, it's not, but I never imagined that from you. You are such a cute guy and Emily is so perfect for you, I really want to hear the rest of your story someday, but that will have to wait until after I have fixed this mess for you."

"You know that you don't have to do that for me right?"

"Yes I do, you helped us and now it's our turn to help you out."

 **Hopefully everyone enjoyed getting an insight into Daimon's head and it wasn't too heavy of a read. Hope you'll alltell me what you think about the chapter and I'll get back to you with another chapter sometime next week. Hope you liked this one and have a nice weekend.**


	9. The matchmakers

**Someone predicted that Josh and Maya would be playing matchmakers and that kind of gave me the idea to name this chapter the way I did. Hope you enjoy it, it ended up quite strange, but I had to make it like that to not mess up the next chapter. Hope you'll enjoy it either way**

"Okay so I know that you probably feel like you have to apologize or something, but don't bother." Daimon said walking back into his dorm room where he knew Josh would be waiting for him.

"How could you not feel like I owe you an apology, I messed everything up for you with Emily just because I was jealous of you going out with Maya."

"That's not why you did it. I've heard from Maya how I'm a really good actor and with how easy it was to slip back into how I acted before I'm not surprised that you thought I really was a jerk for real. Besides if your girl is right then this will all be fixed pretty soon. There really is no need for you guys to try to fix this you know?" Daimon tried hs best to form a smile, but his expression only made him seem confused and quite frankly he was, he didn't understand how he wasn't mad at Josh for ruining things, but he knew that he soke the truth when he said that he didn't blame him for it.

"You talked to Maya didn't you? We are going to fix this for you, I owe you at least that much for getting me and Maya together."

"Together huh? You know you still have something that you need to do to be ale to say that you're actually together you know. You haven't asked her to be your girfriend yet have you?"

"Oh I'm planning something big for that, but that will have to come after we've cleared up the mess with you and Emily. I just hope that we can find her sometime soon."

"I told Maya that you don't have to fix this you know, but then again I also told her that Emily was in her class so I guess she's probably going to go ahead and talk to her anyways. I just hope that she doesn't make things worse for me."

"Trust me when I say that Maya is going to fix things for you. You really like this girl huh?"

"Yeah." Daimon nodded and though he'd been crying a lot that day he couldn't keep the smile off his face. "She's unlike anyone I've ever met, she challenges me to be better. She knows that the player I used to be is not who I'm supposed to be, she's the first one who's made me open up. It's like the person I used to be is someone entirely different because I really can't see myself trying to pick up another girl again."

"Oh so you don't like her." Josh said smiling, he always wondered what kind of person could just keep tossing girl after girl away once he was done playing his games with them. That person made no sense to Josh, but this guy, he was real. "You love her."

"Are you crazy? I've only known her for a few weeks, how could I be in love with her that fast?"

"I know that there are some people who fall for people instantly, my niece and her boyfriend are examples of that. Maybe you're just more like them than you thought?" Josh suggested. He really enjoyed talking to Daimon when he wasn't playing games. He was a really nice guy.

"So, any chance you could tell me how you actually got Maya to go out with you? I know for a fact that she doesn't like you like that."

"Oh, it might have something to with a little photo editing." Daimon said with a smirk. Josh groaned.

"Damn, now I'm going to hear about that for the rest of the week. How did you find out about that anyways?"

"Well, you remember Maya told you to do something to make you forget that she was there right? Well it's not the first time that that's happened. I've walked in on you working quite a few times."

"Well this is embarrasing, I didn't want to let people see those pictures, I mean how lame is it for a guy to be up editing a picture of the girl he likes."

"Don't be embarrased by it, they're really good you know? There's also the fact that you can see how much you care about Maya by the way you're portraying her." Daimon smiled, even though he was still focused on apologizing and patching things up with Emily he couldn't help but feel proud that he'd gotten the two to actually confess their feelings.

"Are you sure that you're really Daimon?" Josh asked jokingly. Daimon turned to look at Josh again with a serious expression before replying.

"No, not really."

* * *

"So how was talking to Daimon last night?" Maya asked.

"Different to say the least, I really enjoy talking to the guy now that he's not so much of an asshole. He did say something interesting though."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, apparently you know about my editing so I guess you need to show me your painting now Maya." Josh watched Maya bite her lip as she tried to think of a clever reply and it took so much effort not to bend down and kiss her right there as they walked to his class. He tugget at her hand which he'd been holding onto all morning.

"What?" she asked, the question was all but forgotten.

"Something Daimon told me yesterday. I know that we're not officially together, but just know that I'm going to get to that once we fix this entire mess. For now though," he said pulling her closer. "You're going to have to settle for this." he bent down and kissed her forehead before releasing her hand.

"Please try to talk to Emily today May, I'll see you at lunch 'kay?" he turned around to give her one last look before entering his classroom.

'With motivation like that how could I not want to get those two together?' Maya asked herself smiling as she walked towards her own class. 'And you won't get to see the painting anytime soon because I'm planning on usng it'

 **So plans for Josh asking Maya, the talk with Emily and Maya's painting. Let's see if you like what I have planned out. I love replying to your reviews, but I can't do it if you're only guest users sadly enough so if you ever wanna chat with me just register a user and review or pm me. Tell me your thoughts on this chapter everyone, guest or not everyone is appreciated.**


	10. Emily's story

"Hi, I'm Maya." Maya said and sat down next to Emily. It didn't take long for her to spot Emily when she walked into class, she was one of those who sat at the middle row but far out to the side so the she could sit sideways with her back leaning against the wall.

"Yeah, you're the one who went out with Daimon last night right?" Maya nodded. "I'm happy for you and Josh." she smiled at Maya, but it never really reached her eyes. Maya being the expert on fake smiles had no trouble recognizing one up close.

"You're not doing so well are you?" She asked her and Emily shook her head.

"It sounds stupid, but I really thought that he'd stopped playing these games. I thought that he was finally the guy that I fell for." Emily wiped away some tears that had started forming in an attempt to keep herself from crying. Maya caugth the attention of her teacher and gestured to Emily and then the door. The teacher nodded and Maya took Emily's hand leading her out of the classroom.

"What do you mean the guy that you fell for? I thought that he was the one who fell for you?" Maya asked sitting down outside the classroom with her back aganst the wall.

* * *

Emily followed suit before continuing;

"I met Daimon a couple of years ago, I sat at a café, trying to do homework, but I had a bad day and couldn't focus on anything. I probably looked a lot like this." she said gesturing to her face where fresh tears were streaming down. "Anyway he walked towards me on his way out of the shop with a coffee in his hands, but then he stopped in front of me. He asked me why I was crying and when I told him that it was none of his business he sat down. He told me that when someone is crying it's just men to walk by them pretending like they don't exist. He seemed so genuinely concerned for me that I ended up telling him about it. You see, for most of my childhood my best friend was this guy who lived across the street. We'd known each other since we were little when I accidentally stumbled into his house instead of mine because I'd mistaken them. I won't tell you all that happened there, but I basically made a fool out of myself. To this day that has to be the most embarassing thing I've ever done, but I got a good friend out of it. Our friendship lasted until the day when I met Daimon. My friend had gotten together with one of the girls in our class whom I absolutely despised, apparently he'd also decided that he'd had enough of me so he'd gone and told his new girlfriend about how we met. Needless to say I hadn't gotten much free time that day with all the people who wanted to make fun of me. I'd lasted until 4th period before running out of the school to escape. I ended up at the café where I met Daimon."

"So how did Daimon react to your story?" Maya asked.

"He didn't care at all about the story he just blew it off, he told me that if my friend was any kind of sensible guy then he wouldn't leave a good friend like me alone for long. I asked him how he knew that I was such a good friend and he looked at me for a while before answering: You haven't said a single bad thing about the guy that stabbed you in the back, heck you haven't even said a bad thing about the girl who tld your story to other peple either. You couldn't even say that you hate her, a girl like you can't not be a good friend. No one had ever listened to me like that before, he seemed lie he saw me in a way that no one had ever done before. I fell for him right there. The last thing he told me to do before he left was to forgive my best friend when he came back to apologize."

"How did he know whether or not you best friend would apologize or not?" Maya asked, Daimon didn't know Emily's friend so it didn't make any sense.

"I don't know, but it didn't take more than ten minutes before my friend sat down next to me. He started rambling on and on about how he was sorry and that he'd broken up with the girl after he realized what she'd done. I didn't even let him finish before standing up to give him a hug."

"After everything he'd done you just let him off the hook right away?"

"Yeah, he'd done some bad things but it wasn't like it was all his fault and besides, Daimon had left me in a really good mood and that made me able to forgive him."

"Okay, but that was two years ago right?" Maya asked and Emily nodded. "At that time Josh was still complaining about his roommate, Daimon being a player. Are you really sure that it was him?"

"Yeah, I don't know why he let up the facade that day, but I think I was the first person to ever see the real Daimon. The first girl to fall for the real Daimon."

"Okay, but how come Daimon didn't recognize you when you first started here then?"

"I don't know, it was two years ago and I'm sure I've changed a lot since then. He sure has."

"You know that that's not true. He was being genuine with you that day two years ago and he was genuine with you now. Daimon is a good guy, he just took it one step too far."

"You know what separates a good guy from a bad guy Maya?" Maya shook her head. "One mistake, he made it."

"That's not true either, he was just playing along so that Josh wouldn't think it was a setup."

"He told me that he was going to stop the acting once he got Josh to ask you out and he did. What he did afterward wasn't acting then."

"You really think that he would have made such an effort to talk to you if he didn't care about you?"

"He obviously just wanted to prove to himself that he could pick up any girl, no matter what kind of methods he had to use."

"Please Emily, what can I say, no what can he say to prove that he genuinely liked you?" Maya asked, this wasn't going at all how she planned it to. People were starting to come out in the hallways and she was nowhere near a solution.

"I don't think that there's anything that you can say that wll fix this, I just don't thik that there's any way I'm going to be able to trust him again." Emily stood up to leave.

"I love you Emily!" a voice called out from behind them. Everyone in the hallway turned around to look at the one who'd spoken. In the middle of the crowd stood Daimon.

 **Wellthat just happened, sorry about not updating earlier, I kind off planned to do it yesterday, but I kinda (celebrated?) me not being a teen anymore. hope you enjoy this chapter and sorry for the cliffhanger (I'm really not) tell me what you think see you on Monday.**


	11. Riley's double dates

"What?" Emily asked staring wide eyed at Daimon. Maya too was shocked, she'd told him that she would handle talking to Emily but here he was blurting out a love confession in front of a large crowd.

"I'm in love with you Emily and I don't care what I have to do to prove it to you, if saying it to you like this where there's no way that I can take it back is what it takes then fine by me. I just can't stand the idea of you not talking to me. I love talking to you, you challenge me to be a real person and not just the dickhead that I've been for the lest few years." Daimon said stepping towards her. The crowd that had gathered where whispering to each other, no doubt surprised by this new side of Daimon.

"Why did you say it out loud here with all these people?" Emily murmured so low that only she, Maya and Daimon could hear it. "You won't be able to pick up another girl now, what are you going to do when you're done with me."

"Don't you get it? I don't want to ever be done with you. I love you and I don't want that to change, I know that the feeling that I get when I talk to you won't disappear and I won't feel like that with anyone else. I don't want to fell like that with anyone else. Please Emily, you don't have to say it back, but please let me have another chance. I know that I screwed up last night and went too far, but that won't ever happen again, I promise. Please be my girlfriend" Daimon had gotten close enough to grasp Emily's hand and he stood there waiting for a reply. Emily looked down towards the ground and for a moment Maya feared that she was going to reject Daimon, but then she looked up with a smile on her face and sparkling eyes showing that she was on the verge of crying tears of joy. She nodded and Daimon pulled her into his arms.

"Oh get a room!" Maya called to the couple and Emily blushed dark red.

"Please Maya, you're just jealous because your boytoy isn't here." Daimon replied with a smirk on his face.

"He's not my boytoy Daimon!" Maya retorted only to squeek when a pair of arms wrapped around her.

"Yes I am." Josh said from behind her.

"C'mon Riley it's not that big of a deal." Maya sat with Riley and Lucas during their lunch break.

"Yes it is, he's my uncle and you're my best friend how could you not tell me about this?" Riley fumed and not even Lucas stroking her hair seemed to lit her mood. It really was incredible, Riley was this ray of sunshine, but sometimes the smallest things med her mood drop drastically.

"It happened last night and I was asleep when you came to bed, was I supposed to wake up when you came back?" with Maya being a deep sleeper there was now way she would wake up just from a bedroom door opening and closing.

"Yes!" Riley threw her hands up in the air as if this was common knowledge.

"Please Riley I told you about it as soon as I could okay?"

"No you didn't, first of all last night, you could have texted me and I would have run back to our room to get the details. Second of all there was this morning, yet you wait until lunch." Maya sighed,

"Yes, what's a few more hours Riley? Besides I still don't get why you had to know immediately."

"Because I wanted to know, now we can go on double dates and stuff like that and I just thought that you'd be a little bit more excited than this Maya."

"Seriously, double dates? You wanted to go on a double date at midnight last night? And Riley believe me, I am excited about this it's just that something came up that kinda demanded my attention. You remember Daimon right?"

"The player yeah? You don't like him do you? Ew Maya he's a player." Riley's face scrunched up and Maya had to laugh a bit at the funny expression.

"No I don't like him like that Riley don't worry. But actually he's not a player anymore, he's done with that."

"As of when?"

"As of Emily, he met this girl that he fell head over heels for and him trying to force Josh to ask me out kind of messed it all up so I had to help him fix it."

"Ah I guess it's okay then." Riley shrugged as if everything was suddenly fine again. With his sunshine back Lucas stopped stroking her hair. "So I guess you know about the editing now right?"

"Riley!? You knew?" Maya had no idea of how everyone exept she knew about the editing, but she'd hoped that if her best friend knew about it that she would have told her. "You knew yet you still let me go on a date with a player like Daimon?"

"You said so yourself, he's not a player anyore so it's fine." Riley told Maya matter of factly.

"Well you didn't know that now did you?"

"Well, it's not like you knew that beforehand though Riley."

"Relax Maya, you're not focusing on the right thing at all." Maya had no idea of what Riley felt would be the right thing to focus on at all, but she was certain that if she found out about her best friend keeping anything else from her then she would be leaping over the table. "Now we can go on triple dates instead of doubles." Riley cheered.

 **I just realized earlier that I hadn't made Daimon a part of the character list of the story so I had to fix that. I think that my regular updating schedule is going to be somewhere along the lines of new chaper every Monday and Thursday/Friday so twice a week. I have another story that I'm working on (not fanfiction) and I kind of have to devote some attention to that. Enough rambling on my part. I hope I captured Riley well enough in this chapter and that you all liked the boytoy scene. Hint hint that's about how much power you girls have in a relationship whether or not us guys actually know it. Please review fav and sub it really helps my motivation. Btw over 100 reviews how awesome is that?! Bye bye.**


	12. You're my boytoy, remember?

**I love how I'm always naming my capters by something random that pops into my head while I'm writing, anyways this story just keeps getting easier for me to write so don't expect me to stop writing anytime soon. I will of course not go crazy on the updates, but there will be two updates per week as mentioned in the last chapter. I won't accept laziness from myself so that's going to stay the same for a while. Remember to tell me your thoughts on the chapters with either pm's or reviews, I really appreciate it. Also a question for all of you reading, how old are you? I wanna know what kind of audience I have.**

"Okay so Daimon just confessed that he love Emily, did you have anything to do with that?" Maya asked Josh while they were studying. Well, Josh was studying, Maya was just doodling around on an empty page in her book.

"Uhm, I might have basically told Daimon that he loved her."

"I knew you were a hopeless romantic after all." Maya told him while smirking.

"As if you're one to talk with how adamant you were on getting those two together."

"Hey," Maya said and punched Josh in the shoulder. "I just didn't want to feel like I owed the guy anything, I mean he helped me get you so I had to do something for him."

"Get me? Am I just a prize to you then?"

"No," she paused and grinned at him. "You're my boytoy remember?" Maya had no time to defend when Josh turned around and tackled her. Her breathing intensified when her back hit the bed and she realized that she had no way of getting out of this with how Josh had pinned her arms down with his own and she just layed there anticipating his next move.

"God you're beautiful Maya." She blushed at his words and wondered as he leant down towards her if this was it. She let out a frustrated groan when she felt his lips connect to her forehead again. "What's wrong Maya?"

"Why did you only kiss my forehead, you don't want to kiss me?" she pouted.

"Are you kidding me Maya? I have to force myself not to do it right now. You have no idea of how much I want to kiss you."

"Then why don't you?"

"Because I want to take you out on a date first, which brings me to something else." he said suddenly twisitng around which made her end up on top of him with a squeal. It didn't take long for her though to realize that this was actually a very comfortable position. "Will you go out with me on Saturday? I checked with Riley, you've got nothing going on on Saturday."

"Don't mention Riley and date in the same sentence, she will just want to make it a double or triple date if you do." Maya groaned.

"Yeah she wanted to, but I said no. our first date will be special and I will make it special for you alone." Maya blushed and buried her face in his chest before resubmerging with a wide grin.

"I'd love to Josh."

"Great, now can you please get off me, I need to finish my homework and it's going to be a bit difficult with you on top of me."

"Actually Josh, there is something I want to do first."

"Oh? You know I said I wouldn't kiss you yet Maya."

"Yeah you did, I however made no such promise and now I ha-uee!" she squeeled the ast part as Josh realized where this was heading and threw Maya off him and ran out of the room. Maay stared at the door for a few second before bursted into fits of laughter. It didn't even stop when Daimon and Emily walked in hand in hand.

"So what did you do to Josh?" Daimon asked her once she'd managed to stop laughing.

"Nothing, I was just having some fun with him."

"Yeah I kinda figured that one out myself, but you don't want to tell me what it was all about?"

"Nah, you have to ask him. I'm going to let you two be alone for a while. Josh will probably be back in a while so I'm going to let you two be alone for as long as you can."

"Okay, oh and Maya, thanks for fixing things." Daimon said as she was just about to walk out. She turned around and smiled at the couple.

"No problem."

"So, kiss or no?" Riley asked Maya as she came back to her own dorm room. Riley didn't even have to look up from her homework to know that it was Maya.

"No." Maya groaned, Josh had great reason and it was kind of romantic she supposed, but she was getting just a little bit impatient.

"Why not? You want me to go talk to him?"

"Nah, I think you and your double dates have done enough Riley. Besides he's just waiting for the right moment."

"The right moment? Like you were waiting for some magical right moment to ask him out?" Riely frowned. "You know those moments never come right?"

"That's rich coming from the girl with the guy who's most memorable quote is my moment will be my moment."

"Well he did say that, but I guess miracles do happen for some people I still don't like Josh's idea of waiting for the right moment, but wait you remmebered that about Lucas?"

"Yeah?" Maya shrugged.

"You really are a hopeless romantic you know."

"Damn, Josh said the same thing earlier today, it might just be true then. But, back to the whole waiting for the right moment it was more like he didn't want to kiss me until we'd gone out on an actual date which is this Saturday."

"So in two days? You sure you can finish the painting until then?" Riley asked her.

"Yeah, I spent the last two hours doodling in my notebook while Josh was studying, now I want to do something productive for once."

"So you spent two hours doodling instead of doing your homework? Doesn't that mean that you should do homework now instead of painting?"

"Do you remember our conversation about prioritizing? You're supposed to be the smart one of us so how come you don't have this down?"

"I think this just proves once and for all that I am the smart one Maya." Riley told Maya before leaving the dorm room so that Maya wuld be able to focus on the painitng.

 **Hope you enjoyed, until next time.**


	13. PDA and hoodies

**There was this one person who said that I didn't get enough recognition for my work and i can honestly say that I have no idea of what he or she is talking about. I average about 10 reviews every chapter which for me is quite insane and there seems to be a massive amount of people reading this story every day. I would like to thank you all formally because it really helps me keep my motivation up and this is way more recognition than I could have ever hoped for. I just hope that this can continue once I start publishing real books as well. So I seem to be managing to keep my updating schedule so I hope you like the fact that you can predict when the next chapter is coming out. Please do tell me your thoughts on the chapters and of course constructive criticism is always welcome because I most certainly have room for improvement. Hope you liked this one and I'll see you in a few days.**

"So, you're telling me that you spent so much time pining over Maya and now that you've got her you don't want to kiss her? That's crazy man." it hadn't taken that long for Josh to return after Maya left and though he had been talking to Emily, Daimon just had to know what had happened for him to run away like that.

"Of course I do, but I've liked her for years now so it's not fair that I just kiss her like that. I want to make it big and not before I've taken her out on a date. Like you're one to talk though, I haven't seen you two kiss yet either."

"uhm, we have, but just not in public." Emily said. "I'm just not a very big fan of PDA for no reason."

"And he agreed to that?" Josh asked pointing to Daimon.

"Oh, I agree with everything she says." Daimon told him with a smile.

"Dude, you are so whipped." Josh smirked at him, but Emily frowned at the comment.

"don't call my boyfriend whipped Josh." she sad before she blushed when she remembered that that was the first time she called Daimon her boyfriend. Apparently Daimon noticed as well because he leant over to peck her lips.

"Yeah real subtle there Daimon, and he really is whipped Emily, you're just too innocent to see that you can make him agree to virtually anything that you want to."

"Hey, PDA for no reason is one thing, I had a reason this time and you can't call that PDA when there's only you besides the two of us here. Oh and Emily, he's right you know. About the getting me to do anyhing you want me to."

"Oh." Emily simply answered and blushed. "What was the reason then?" she asked as Daimon leaned over and pecked her once more.

"Have you seen yourself when you blush? You're seriously the most beautiful thing that I've ever seen so I can't resist it okay?" Daimon said and pulled her into his lap.

"I still don't get how someone can have a 180 turnover like you've had."

"Just think of it like this Josh, what would you have done if Maya had started to ignore you because of the way you acted?"

"I would have changed."Josh answered. "I would do anything just to be able to talk to her every day."

"and yet you were the one who had to tell me that I was in love with Emily? Man you're really thick you know that?" Daimon mumbled and Josh wondered if he'd heard correctly. It was true that he'd known Maya for a long time and that he had very strong feelings for her, but had ir really developed into love? This was dangerous territory, he knew that if he told Maya she could end up running away if she didn't return his feelings.

"Wake up Josh!" Josh heard someone shouting before a pillow hit his head. When he groaned he coud hear the same voice giggling.

"What's up with the rough wakeup Maya?" he asked as he opened his eyes and groaned once more as he stared right into the ceiling light.

"I wanted to have some fun, come on Josh! I'm in a good mood so you have to be too, c'mon just look at me and smile." Josh turned his head so that it was facing the way that the voice was comiing from and slowly opened one eye until Maya came into focus. As soon as his eyes found her all notions of being tired or grumpy fled his body. Apparently she'd raided his closet when he was gone the previous day and now she was wearing one of his big hoodies. It far from fit her yet Josh thought it was the best fit ever. He'd never seen anything look so cute before. "Oh, so that worked then?" Maya asked and smirked.

"mhm." Josh nodded and gestured for her to come closer. Maya smiled warmly at him as she walked towards the bed thinking that he was going to kiss her. She squeaked however when Josh pulled her so that she ended up in the bed and wondered what she'd done wrong when Josh jumped off the bed as fast a he could.

"What are you doing Josh?"

"Just stay there Maya, don't move!" he shouted at her while frantically looking for something. He returned, after apparently finding the thing that he was looking for.

"Why are you holding your camera Josh?" Maya asked as she tried to get out of the bed.

"I told you to stay there Maya!" Josh told her sternly and she settled back into the bed. "I need to get a picture of this."

"Seriously Josh? We already have ittle time until classes begin and you want to waste the precious time that could be used on getting us breakfast by taking a photograph of me? Why?"

"screw school, screw breakfast, this is much more important Maya. It's just that you look absolutely perfect in that hoodie." Josh rambled on taking the picture and checking that it turned out the way that he wanted.

"It's just a hoodie Josh, it's no big deal. Strike, that it's very big, but I ike it so there's no need to make such a big fuss over it okay Josh? I really don't see how this is worth you missing school for, and certainly not me missing breakfast."

"You have no idea of what you're doing to me do you? I-i" Josh stuttered and stopped himself from saying anything more. The words wanted to get out, but he just knew that she wouldn't be ready to receive them quite yet. He would wait though, he would wait however long it took for her to get ready to hear it.


	14. You have no idea

**It's Thursday! Of course you knew that, but that means that there is a new chapter coming out. Hope you enjoy this one. The next chapter will contain at least the first part of the date so look forwards to that. I've decided where I want to end up with this story, but not how I'm going to end up there so expect this story to go on for quite some time. Reviews are always appreciated so please tell me what you think about the story. Thee are guest users leaving comments about how good they think the story is and you have no idea of how big a smile that puts on my face. You guys (Girls?) are seriously awesome. Also I'm kinda curious to know if most of you are guys or girls so if you would leave a comment on that then it would be much appreciated. Enjoy, and I'll see you guys on Monday.**

"You have no idea of what you're doing to me do you? I-i" Dared she hope? No it as way too sudden for him to suddenly be in love with her. They hadn't even gone out on a date. She remembered when she told Josh that she liked him three years ago back at the ski lodge. She'd almost told him that day, but with how it ended up she was more than happy that hse'd restrained herself. The only thing Maya needed was to realize that she didn't have felings for Lucas before it became clear to Maya how strong her feelings for Josh really were. Maya had been in love with Josh for three years and for the same three years she'd been comfortable just knowing that her first love at least liked her. There was something about the way that Josh was suddenly speaking that had her hoping for more though. She already had her mind set on when she would confess her true feelings though and with the picture halfway done it was all looking good.

"Hello? Maya?" Maya blinked twice and noticed the hand waving in front of her face.

"Yeah?" she asked still a bit out of it.

"You ready for some quick breakfast? I was thinking of buying you a couple of donuts." That brought Maya back.

"Awwe you spoil me Josh."

"Don't worry about it Maya, I want to okay?"

"Oh, I wasn't complaining though Josh, you can definitely just continue on like that. So long as you have the money that is."

"Uhm, how about just once in a while then." Josh chuckled and offered her his hand to help her out of the bed.

"Fine.." she grumbled. "But we're going to have to pick up the pace if you still want to reach school on time."

"Why are you talking about it as if i'm the only one who has to go to school? You have classes yourself too you know."

"Oh, I know that I have classes, but you see I have this wonderful class called arts where we're sometimes allowed to just work on our projects on our own. This means that I'm free to do whatever I want to until my english class at 11."

"Lucky." Josh groaned and went to brush his teeth and get ready for the day.

"So, any hints about where we are going tomorrow?" with it being Friday Maya was beyond excited for their date the next day, but she couldn't help but feel quite frustrated about not getting to know any details about the date. It didn't help that one she told Riley about it she started interrogating her about it even when she knew that Maya didn't have anydetails to spill.

"uhm we'regoing to be outside for a while and make sure you bring your apetite." Josh said.

"I gotta go now Maya, see you later okay?" he leant over and kissed her cheek while she was distracted and before she realized it he'd run off to class. 'damn Maya!, all you needed to do was to turn around!' she thought bitterly. She stood up from the table and headed back to her room. She'

d been extra motivated to push in some more work on the painting that morning and with the mood that she was in now that Saturday was fast approaching she could even see herself getting some regular homework done as well.

"Hey Maya," the soft voice of Emily said as she passed the table where she'd been sitting with her laptop.

"Hey." Maya stopped and sat down at the table. "you could have joined us you know, you don't have to sit for yourself."

"Oh, that's okay. I just figured I should give the happy couple some privacy."

"Happy couple? You're making it sound like we're married, you do realize that Josh and I aren't even together right?"

"Yeah I know it's just tat you seem so in tune with each other it's hard to imagine that this has only been going on for a few days."

"In tune? Are you kidding me? He won't even kiss me!" Maya groaned and Emily giggled.

"You know that he wants to kiss you right?" Emily asked. "He just feels like it would be cheap on his part to do it right away when you've been waiting for years on this. He wants to do something special for you. He's such a romantic." Emily stared dreamily off into space as she mentioned the last part.

"As if you're one to talk with how you and Daimon are around each other, you're perfect." Maya had never seen a couple that fit together so well at their age. It really was incredible that they had become accustomed to each other so fast. Maya and Josh had known each other for many years and she didn't even feel like they were as close as Emily an Daimon seemed to be while they had only known each other for a few weeks.

"He is, I'm just lucky." Emily commented with a blush on her face. "Anyways, the real reason I didn't want to join you was that I felt like I had to finish up some work."

"Oh, you know we would have let you work if you wanted to though right?"

"I know, it's just that this is kind of private I guess. I like to find those quiet moments to sit down and work. I know that you have an incredible talent for art, but i'm not like that and so I'm kind of shy to show it to people."

"Now I really want to know what it is you're doing, but I won't ask if it's too private. I would advice you to do one thing though if you want to keep it a secret. Remember to close your computer so that your boyfriend won't have access to it while you're gone."

"Why would I be afraid of him looking at my computer? He's not like that is he?"

"Oh" Maya smirked. "You have no idea."


	15. Dancing on the roof (Part one)

**Well the date is starting so I hope you're all looking forward to it. With valentines day coming up I hope you've all made plans with someone special. If not then you can find way to enjoy yourselves on your own like I will. I will of course be posting a new chapter tomorrow as well seeing as it is a romance faniction so I hope you'll look forward to that. Thursday/Fridays update will of course come as well. Before we start I have a question for you guys. What _Girl Meets World_ character would you like me to bring in to this story next. I'm thinking of introducing another one. Well tell me your thoughts on that and enjoy the new chapter.**

 _ **Dancing on the roof**_

Josh had been afraid that the weather would turn out bad, but as he looked at the forecast for the day he realized that he could not have hoped for better. It would all turn out perfect. He went over the date in his head once more like he'd done about a hundred times before nodding to himself and turning off his computer.

"So nodding to yourself now? You know, that's almost as bad as talking to yourself. Maybe you're going crazy." Daimon mocked from the foot of his bed where he sat lazily reading.

"So? I talk to myself as well, I know that I'm crazy Daimon. That has never bothered me though, I'm going out now." Daimon merely chuckled and nodded as Josh left.

* * *

Josh took one more look at himself like he'd been doing for the last five minutes before knocking on the door to Maya and Riley's door. It opened almost immediately and Riley tackled Josh with a hug.

"Uhm what are you doing niece?" Josh asked, he loved Riley and the rest of his family, but he still wasn't used to being tackled like that.

"Oh Josh." Riley said sounding a bit disappointed. "I thought it was Lucas, sorry. We're supposed to hang out while you're gone." She said releasing him and taking some distance.

"It's fine Riley, Is Maya almost ready or what?" Josh loved talking to his niece, but at the moment he only had Maya in his head.

"Uhm in a couple of minutes, mind if I talk to you first though?" Riley asked and when Josh nodded reluctantly she walked outside with him closing the door behind her.

"So, what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Are you really serious about going out with Maya?" Riley looked dead serious as she asked the question. As if she wouldn't even let Josh go out with Maya at all if Josh wasn't in it for the long run.

"Of course I am, I'm crazy about that girl. It's been her since that day at the ski lodge, it's probably been her since long before that. I just didn't realize it until that day at the ski lodge." Josh meant it when he said that he liked Maya that day, he meant it when he said that he would play the long game. Now, when the game was finally drawing to a close he was really glad that he'd decided to play.

"That didn't realize it part is the problem though, Maya never went through that. It's been you since day one Josh and I don't want you so hurt her because you suddenly decide that you're done with her. As much as I care about you Josh I will hunt you down if you hurt her."

"As Daimon said, I don't plan to be done with her. I'm going to stay with Maya for as long as I can Riley." Josh vowed.

"Okay, well as long as you don't hurt her then there's no problem. I'm really happy that you finally asked her out Josh. Can you tell me what you're doing though?" The serious expression had vanished without a trace and now Riley was once again all smiles and curiousity.

"I won't tell you now Riley, it would probably ruin the girl talk afterwards. Besides, I'm sure that Maya would really like to tell you about the date herself afterwards." Josh said just as the door opened.

"You can stop the interrogation now Riley, I'm ready." Maya said. As she stepped out Josh knew he was staring, how could he not though. Josh had always felt that Maya looked way too good, it was one of the reasons why she made him feel so uneasy back when he was trying to deny his feelings for her. Now however she'd outdone herself, she was wearing a blue dress that just barely went past her knees. It wasn't one of those tight fitting dresses that most girls wore to show off. It was simply beautiful, it was simply her.

"Uhm Josh?" Maya asked with a blush on her face.

"Yeah, sorry I kinda spaced out a bit there didn't I?" he'd done that quite a bit while looking at her, but not while she knew that he was looking. Shrugging of the the embarassment he decided that it would happen a lot more in the future anyways so he would just have to get used to it. The sooner the better.

"Yeah, ready to go?" Maya asks reaching forward to grab my left hand.

"As ready as I'll ever be, but first one thing I have to do." as his right hand reached for the back of her head Josh leaned forward kissing her cheek. His body sparked with electricity and he realized that the corner of his lips just brushed hers. His whole body filled with anticipation for when he would actually kiss her for real. "You just look too beautiful to resist Maya, now we can go."

* * *

"Okay so this is the outside part of the date?" Maya asked as they were walking hand in hand through central park. Josh had never thought that he'd be lucky enough to be doing this with her and just knew that this was the day that he would remember as the best day of his life.

"Not really, I just figured we could walk this way seeing as it's such a nice warm day. The park always looks so beautiful on sunny days like this." With it being mid september the part had apparently not realized that autumn was rolling in. It still looked like it did mid that Josh was focused on the park at all with Maya beside him though.

"So where are we going?" Maya asked,

"To the arcade, I'm going to crush you at airhockey." Maya gasped momentarily before her expression turned into a smirk that almost made Josh lean down to capture her lips right there.

"You can try, but you won't succeed Josh."


	16. Dancing on the roof (Part two)

**Happy valentines, I'm not really one for celebrating seeing as I'm single, but it gave me an excuse to push for consecutive updates so hope you like it. For all you lucky ones out there I hope you spend the day with your special someone instead of reading.**

* * *

 **Dancing on the roof (part two)**

* * *

"How could you ever think that you could beat me like this Josh?" Maya laughed as she hit Josh's goal for the tenth time earning her the victory. Josh could always try telling himself that he was losing because he was losing his focus on the match every time that he looked at Maya, but he wasn't sure if he would have been able to win even if he'd been focusing on the match.

"I was wrong Maya, there's no denying that you're great at this game." Josh said as he approached her and wrapped his arms around her. Maya smiled and looked up at him and it took all of Josh's willpower to keep himself from kissing her.

"So Josh, what's next now that I've beaten you three times?" Maya really wanted to wrap her arms around his neck to pull him down to her lips, but there was something about the way that kiss on her cheek felt that made her want to hold out on it until Josh decided it was time. Besides, if he'd felt the same spark that she'd felt then he wouldn't be able to wait long.

"Now I'm thinking we could go somewhere to eat, how does pizza sound?" for most people pizza wouldn't really be the food to eat on a date, but Josh knew how much Maya loved and even though he had to ask her he had no doubt in his mind that she would say yes to it.

"Pizza? You spoil me Josh." she replied only half joking.

"Not yet, that will come later. I'm hoping you'll enjoy what I have planned for later too." Josh said releasing her from his arms, now only holding hands as they walked out of the arcade.

"I don't know Josh. That would be a whole lot easier to answer if I actually knew what we're doing tonight." Maya joked.

"Uhm, no. You'll just have to wait and tell me what you think about it later."

"You know, you're kinda mean Josh." Maya complained still with a smile on her face.

"Yeah and I feel so bad for you, not." he told her as he lead her into their favourite pizza restaurant. They'd found it once together with Riley and though they hadn't been there together since that day they'd both been frequent customers ever since finding the place.

"Hey Josh,"a female voice called to him and he turned around to find his lab partner. Walking around with an apron and a pizza tray.

"Hey Viola, I didn't know that you worked here." Josh hadn't planned for there to be anyone there that he or Maya knew. He wanted this date to be private.

"Yeah, you recommended the restaurant and I saw a help wanted sign here one day so I asked for the job. I got very lucky. Who's this?" Viola asked gesturing to Maya.

"This is my date for the day, Maya. Maya this is Viola my lab partner." Maya found herself nodding even though she knew full well who the girl was.

"Oh, lucky you Maya," Maya instantly decided that she didn't like the way Viola called her lucky, she felt threatened. "Just keep in mind that if you hurt him you'll hav to answer to me okay?"

"Don't worry, I really like him." in her head she said love him instead of like, but she couldn't just blurt that out on the first date.

"That's good to hear, I'll leave you two alone now, have fun." she smiled and walked away.

"Sorry about that Maya, I didn't know that she worked here." Josh said as they sat down in their booth.

"It's fine Josh." she found herself saying though the encounter with Viola had really shook her confidence. She seemed genuinely happy for them, but also a bit jealous. It was that bit of jealousy that frightened Maya, she couldn't see what see how she would be able to compete with Viola if the girl suddenly decided she was going to try to get Josh.

"No it's not Maya, but I'm going to try to make up for it. This date is about you, no one else matters okay?" Maya found herself blushing at his words. "I'm going to make you feel like you're a princess today, because to me that's what you are." and just like that all of her worries were gone.

* * *

A waiter brought their Pizza and they both started eating. They ate the first few slices without exchanging many words seeing as they were both so hungry. Afterwards though when they both just took the occasional bite came the part that Josh enjoyed the most.

"So, when did you decide that you wanted to ask me out?" Maya asked.

"You remember that time when I was spacing out thinking about a test?" She nodded. "I was thinking about you," Josh really liked the way her face lit up at that. "You asked me what I was thinking about and my head was basically screaming out you, but I couldn't get the words out. I knew I had to ask you out long before that, but that was the point where I really started stressing trying to find a way to do it."

"Trying to find a way?" Maya asked incredously, "I gave you so many opportunities, why do you think I asked to be alone in your room?"

"Uhm so that I could focus?"

"Focus my ass, I wanted you to feel like you had the opportunity to ask me anything without there being anyone else there."

"So you want meto focus on your what?" Josh asked now with a smirk.

"That's what you got out of that? Perv!" Maya said turning away from him with her arms crossed.

"Hey you're the one who said it Maya, c'mon turn around."

"I did not say that Josh! And I'm not turning around until you apologize."

"I will not apologize, and I will not apologize" Josh said standing up and walking around the table.

"I beg to difmfh!" The last part of whatever she was going to say was cut off as Josh turned her head around and kissed her.

 **I'm an asshole I know (Bows with a smirk on his face) Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Fav follow and review if you feel like it. See you in a couple of days.**


	17. Dancing on the roof (Part three)

Dancing on the roof (part three)

* * *

"I beg to difmfh!" was all Maya got to say before she felt a pair of lips on her own. She moaned when she felt the spark from earlier return, only now 10 times as powerful. All too soon though Josh ended the kiss.

"God I love that sound." Josh said making his way over to his side of the table. "I can honestly say that I've never enjoyed a meal of pizza this much."

"So, your other dates weren't this good?" Maya asked timidly.

"I haven't gone out with anyone in the last three years Maya, it's been all you since that day at the ski lodge."

"And here I felt stupid for waiting on something that I didn't even know was going to come. I wish I had known that you were waiting for it too, it would have made things a lot easier." Maya told him, while it was definitely worth the wait Maya couldn't help but feel that it would have been a lot easier if she had known that Josh was still waiting for that day as well.

"Just know that you don't have to wait anymore Maya, I'm not going anywhere." with that he reached acros the table and kissed her once more.

"So what's next Josh?" Maya asked as they broke apart. When Josh was just staring absentmindedly at her she snapped her fingers in front of his face.

"Oh, uhm." he checked his watch. "Shit! We have to go now Maya." He stood up abruptly and reached for her hand.

"Why what's going on? Is the date over?"

"Not yet, you'll just have to see." He said pulling her along while half running.

* * *

"Seriously Josh! How much farther are you going to drag me?" Maya was growing tired of running. She was convined that Josh had officially lost it when they ended up in front of his brother's apartment complex.

"We're almost there now Maya, we just need to climb a few floors."

"You do realize that these shoes." she gestured to her heels, "are not meant for running right?"

"Then why wear them at all?" Josh stopped and looked at her.

"Because they look great. And also, you're so tall it's nice to not have to climb to reach your face." she said with a blush on her face.

"So you came prepared even though I'd never kissed you before?"

"Yeah, I had a good feeling, although now I'm having mixed feelings about the shoes though."

"I could carry you though." Josh suggested.

"I'm fine!" Maya said and ran up the steps to the complex. "Should I call your brother?" Maya asked, seeing as none of them lived in the complex they usually had to call Riley's father to get in.

"Nah, no need, I've got it all covered for today." Josh told her holding up a key card.

"Fancy."

"Yeah, I can be pretty fancy when I want to Maya." he told her and bent down to peck her lips once before taking her hand and leading her up the stairs.

"Wait here for about 20 seconds before walking out the door okay?" Josh asked her once they reached the door leading to the rooftop.

"Why, Josh?" Maya asked as he snuck out the door completely ignoring her. "Well that wasn't nice." she muttered to herself. She had half a mind to just barge right out the doors ruining whatever he had planned for her, but before she knew it she had already counted to 20 and found herself opening the door slowly in anticipation. She took a look around but couldn't see Josh. All she saw was a blanket with a casket on top of it. Obviously it was put there for Maya to find so she walked up to it and opened the casket. Inside she found an electric candle, some food and a small music angel speaker. She took the candle and the speaker out and noticed a framed picture lying behind the food. When she took it out she knew instantly that this was what he'd been working on when she took her picture of him. It was a picture taken of her. The way the light fell on her and made her the main focus of the photo made it all seem so perfect. She was obviously talking to someone at the tie when the picure was taken and she had that smile on her face that she always had right before she started laughing.

"I love that smile." Maya turned around and watched Josh walk towards her.

"what is all this?" Maya asked gesturing to the stuff on the ground.

"This is me taking you to my special spot. I come here to think."

"So you come to your brother's apartment complex to think?" Maya said giggling.

"The roof, and I mostly use the fire escape so he doesn't know that I'm here."

"Now you're just making excuses Josh. What's with the picture though? You're making me seem like Riley."

"Riley?" Maya didn't look anything like his niece in Josh's opinion and he thanked god for it.

"Yeah, the way I'm smiling there like a sun or something."

"Well you kinda are, to me anyways." Josh told her with a blush on his face.

"That's corny mister," Maya pointed out, "But I like it." she stood up and walked the last few steps over to Josh. When she looked up at him and wrapped her arms around his neck he needed no more persuation to kiss her.

"So..." Maya said dragging out the word as they broke apart. She was blushing from the kiss, but did her best to hide it. "What's next?"

"Now, we dance."

"Seriously? On the roof?" This was ridicilous.

"Yes." he said untangling her arms and walking over to the music angel. He plugged in his phone and a soft slow song started playing. While it was far from what he ususally listened to Josh had to admit that it was the perfect choice for the occasion. "Now," he said walking over to her again. "Will you dance with me?"

"Of course dork." she told him with a smile. Though it was really cliché she had to admit that it was perfect. This night really was the perfect first date. She wrapped her arms around his again while his snaked their way around her waist. They started swaying to the music and Maya rested her head on his shoulder. "Thank you for tonight Josh, this really is perfect."

"Not yet." Josh told her, she opened her eyes and looked up at him. "Will you be my girlfriend?" Maya felt a tear run down her cheek and she nodded and smiled at him. That was all he needed to bend down to kiss her. They forgot all about the music at that moment, in this moment none of that mattered.

* * *

"You have no idea of how long I've wanted to ask you that." Josh told her breathing heavily. Her lips were swollen and it took all of his willpower to not kiss her again.

"Three years I suppose?" Maya looked up at him and she had to restrain herself not to say those three words. It was too early, way too early.

"Yeah, three long years. The long game is finally over though." Josh smiled and leant down to kiss her once more.

 **This is not the end of the story, it's going to last for quite some time don't worry. I'm so sorry for not updating on Thursday/Friday, but with this chapter containing what it does I hope I can make it up to you. As usual tell me your thoughts on the chapter and if you like the story then why not favorite right? I'm taking some of the time that I would usually spend writing on this story to work on a book so here's to hoping that it won't take so long for me to update again.**


	18. Your Boytoy is ruining everything

**Your boytoy is ruining everything**

* * *

"So, this means that you're done playing around right?" Riley asked already bouncing in her seat. She had been sitting in her bed with Emily when Maya got back from the date. She didn't seem to mind at all that it was nearing midnight and Maya knew that she would have to deal with a grumpy Riley the following day. With Riley's childlike personality also came an increased need for sleep, but Maya and Riley always woke up early on weekends to eat breakfast at a coffee shop nearby,

"Of course Riley." Maya told her with a huge grin on her face that she couldn't seem to get rid of for all she tried. "He's my boyfriend."

"That date was so sweet Maya, I'm really envious of you." Emily said.

"Seriously? You had a guy confessing his love for you in the hallway surrounded by all of your classmates just so that he could prove he was being serious. If that's not romantic then I don't know what is." Maya told her.

"Yeah, Daimon is pretty great." Emily agreed and blushed.

"Pretty great? Emily, he's perfect. I can't believe that we thought he was such a jerk."

"Stop trying to change the subject Maya," Riley complained. "You still haven't told us what happened after he asked you out."

 _So, you know that I didn't bring the basket just for show. This was supposed to be a picnic so I hope that you brought your appettite." Josh told her._

" _Seriously Josh, we just ate, do you expect me to be hungry again?"_

" _Seriously Maya, I've known you for quite some time now, do you really expect to fool me like that? You're always hungry."_

" _But I don't want you to think that I'm always stuffing my face." Maya complained, but sat down and pulled out a sandwitch from the basket._

" _C'mon, you've seen me stuffing my face so many times and you still like me for some strange reason."_

" _But you're a guy okay?"_

" _So after that whole argument when it came to the eating I really liked the picnic Josh." Maya told him, they'd reached the door to her room. "So is this the part of the dae where it all gets awkward?"_

" _Nope this is the part of the date where I kiss my girlfriend goodnight before I leave you to get interrogated by Riley. I will never ever want things to be awkward between the two of us Maya. Good night beautiful girl, I had the best time ever." Josh told her and leaned down to kiss her. He wrapped one arm around her waist and one found the back of her head wher he massaed her scalp as he kissed her. When he felt her arms wrap around his neck he lifter her up in an attempt to get her closer._

 _When they broke apart they were both breathing heavily still with their foreheads touching._

" _You're perfect Maya." He told her and put her down. As he walked away from her Maya felt her back lean against the door with a grin from ear to ear._

" _I love you Josh." she whispered to herself when she was sure that no one heard her. She gasped when she felt the door open behind her and she found herself falling backwards._

" _Tell me!" she heard Riley shout and groaned as she lied on the floor rubbing her sore behind._

* * *

"Wake up Beautiful." Maya heard someone say when she woke up the next morning. Maya thought to herself that if this was Riley's new clever tactic to get her out of bed early it was not working. "C'mon, are you that tired from yesterday?" Maya wondered why she was the only one tired, Riley usually had a much harder time getting out of bed than she did. Then she heard a groan that she knew belonged to Riley. That made no sense to her. What baffled her even more was when she felt something warm press against her forehead.

"Maya, get your boytoy to shut up!" Riley groaned again. Boytoy? She felt another one of what she now realized was kisses, this time against her cheek. She opened her left eye reluctantly and saw Josh standing there with a warm smile on his face.

"I could get used to being woken up like this." Maya said smiling back at him.

"I don't think I can do thison weekdays though Maya, you would be late all the time." Maya scoffed.

"I would not!" she protested.

"Really? How long did it take you to wake up now?"

"uhm, about 15 minutes I suppose?" Maya answered lazily before realizing what she'd said.

"And excactly how much time do you have on mornings, Fridays not included." Josh added hastily because he knew she would just use Fridays as an excuse.

"five minutes." Maya groaned.

"That reminds me," Josh said leaning forward to kiss her lips. "you have excactly five minutes until I decide to eat breakfast without you." Josh said walking calmly towards the door.

"You wouldn't!" Maya sneered at him.

"So cute, but don't worry I wouldn't be alone anyways. Lucas, Emily and Daimon are joining me, you want to come eat breakfast with your boyfriend too Riley?"

"Lucas?" Riley questioned sitting up in her bed.

"No, your other boyfriend." Josh replied lazily.

"You weren't supposed to find out about him." Riley groaned. It really amused Josh that Riley was able to reply like that when she was half sleeping.

"Oh just wait until I tell Lucas you said that." Josh called and ran out the door.

"Maya!" Riley complained. "Your boytoy is ruining everything, I hate him."

"No you don't." Maya replied as she was finishing getting dressed. "You love him almost as much as I do."

"You what?!" Riley shrieked.

"Uhm." Maya said panicking. "I gotta run, can't be late for breakfast you know." as the door slammed shut again Riley groaned as her head hit the pillow once more.


	19. Not now, definitely not now

**Not now, definitely not now**

* * *

"So glad you decided to join us niece." Josh smirked at Riley when she walked up to the table a few minutes after Maya had joined them.

"Yeah, I have something I need to discuss with Maya." Riley turnd to look at her best friend who in turn groaned. She knew what Riley was hinting at but she just couldn't have that conversation with her at that moment and she most definitely did not want josh around for it.

"Not now Riley," she stole a glance at Josh "Definitely not now." She couldn't risk Josh finding out hat she'd told Riley. Not now, it was too early and she wanted him to be the only one there when she told him.

"Tonight then? You will talk to me, either now or later." Riely demanded.

"Fine, I'll tell you tonight. Now, I want some breakfast!" Maya forced herself out of her serious mood to try to lighten the atmosphere.

"You're so cute when you're impatient." Josh said and placed a kiss on her forehead. Just as he looked up he heard a whipping sound. He turned around and saw Daimon hastily trying to pu his phone back in his pocket. "Seriously? Dude, did you download an app that makes wipping sounds?"

"To be fair, that's not all it does."

"Still it was for that purpose right?" Josh prompted.

"Hey, I didn't have a choice okay? No one else was going to do it and you're just too whipped."

"So, you're calling me whipped? Have you seen yourself Daimon?"

"I am not whipped Josh, take that back!" Daimon demanded.

"Let's see, Emily?" Josh called and got her attention. "I want you to ask Daimon to do something, anything." Emily nodded timidly and turned back to Daimon who was suddenly breathing heavily.

"Daimon, can you give me the code to your phone?" When Josh noticed Daimon reaching for his phone he gave his own impression of a whipping sound and cracked up.

"I would never go that far!" he said laughing.

"Oh really?" Maya asked with a suggestive smirk on her face.

* * *

"Okay so do I want to know what Riley was asking you about?" Josh asked. They'd left a bit early because Josh had said he wanted some tie alone with his girl. Maya had left in a bit of a daze when Josh had called her his girl. It wasn't until she was sitting in his lap that she even registered that she was in his room.

"You will probably get to know it when the time is right, but I don't want to rush things."

"I get it, no sense in rushing those things." he said and pecked her cheek. "Now, how does movies here on Wednesday sound?" Josh asked

"I don't know I think I have something going on with my other boyfriend on Wednesday." When Josh just stared at her she spoke again, "Sorry, Riley made me do it okay?"

"Oh I will deal with my niece later," Josh told her, "but for now you are going to pay for that Maya." he told her before flipping her around so that she was lying on her back. When he kissed her she couldn't help but try to get closer to him by wrapping her arms and legs around him, but he pinned them down. She groaned when she realized how futile her efforts were. "I told you that you would pay. I'm not letting you go until you say that you'll watch movies with me, and only me." When he kissd her again she knew she'd lost.

"Okay, I'll watch some movies with you." She gasped when she broke away from the kiss.

"Now was that so hard?" Josh smirked triumphantly at her.

"Yes," she huffed, still trying to regain her breath. "But, I want you to kiss me like that again." Josh needed no further instructions before complying with her wishes.

* * *

"So," Riley said as soon as Maya opened up the door. "You want to tell me what that was this morning?"

"What?" Maya asked, feigning ignorance.

"You're in love with my uncle?" Riley asked although to Maya it sounded more like a statement.

"Something like that? You're in love with Lucas so what's the big deal? She's" Maya gestured to the door where Emily barged in, "In love with Daimon, I don't know if she's told him yet, but she is." Emily blushed at Maya's words.

"I haven't, he hasn't told me that he loves me since that time in the hallway and I don't wan't him to think that I'm cheap by just blurting it out after kissing him or something."

"He won't think that you're cheap, he loves you and if he knew that you love him back then he might say it more often."

"True, maybe I should tell him, but why are you talking about this now Maya?"

"Because," Riley cut in, "She loves Josh,"

"You serious? Tell him!" Emily squealed.

"What? I can't, what if I scare him away? I have to hear him say it first."

"Why? My uncle loves you, that much is obvious to everyone." Riley stated.

"How can you be so sure? I mean with Daimon and Lucas it's pretty obvious with the way that they look at you girls when you're not looking, but it's not like that with Josh." Maya stated, Emily's mouth widened and Riley just smiled at them both.

"So Daimon looks at me like that?" She wondered out loud. "I thought it was only you two who were that lucky."

"You mean?" Maya said gesturing to herself, when both Riley and Emily nodded a strange feeling arose in the darkest pit of her heart. She was scared.

* * *

 **So, anyone know what's going on here? This story is taking a twist and I'm curious to see what you guys think about it as well as what you think is going to happen. I realize that it has been just about three weeks since I last updated and for that I'm truly sorry, but I'm hoping this chapter is a sign of good things to come. The next chapters are going to be a lot easier for me to write and so I think they will come out a lot more frequent. Remember to tell me what you think about the story and I'll see you soon.**


	20. Love and Pain

**Love and Pain**

* * *

 **Okay so I have the next chapter already finished, but I'm just pacing the story out. I should be able to manage an update a week for the time being so unless you start hating me for what happens in this chapter. Tell me your thoughts on it and hopefully you'll stay with me to see where I've planned to take this story.**

"Did I do something wrong?" Josh asked. He'd pulled out a litle bit of snacks so that they could enjoy themselves while watching the movies and he'd put off deciding the movie until Maya arrived, but when she hardy responded at all when he kissed her as she arrived he knew that something was up. He had hardly seen her since the afternoon that they'd spent together on Sunday, but he'd figured she's simply been busy with her own stuff.

"What? Why would you think that?" Maya frowned, she'd been unable to focus on anything since her conversation with Emily and Riley. The question 'does he love me?' was playing on repeat over and over again in her head and she couldn't make it stop.

"It's just that you seem so distant, I was worried that I'd done something wrong." 'great' Maya thought, 'just what I need, for him to feel bad.'

"It's not something you've done Josh, I've just had something on my mind these last few days."

"You want my help to figure it out?" 'Do you love me?' her head screamed at her to ask him, to just get it out there. Besides, she wouldn't have to tell him that he did if he turned her down so it was fine. Sure she would be a little bit upset if he didn't actually say that he loved her, but she knew that he liked her and at the moment that was enough for her.

"No, it's okay. Don't worry about it." Maya found herself saying.

"Okay." Josh smiled at her. "So what movie do you want to see?"

* * *

Even with Maya assuring him that everything was alright he knew that something was bothering her. He had his arms wrapped around her as they watched the movie, Josh had suggested a that they'd watch very Harry Potter movie throughout the next month or so and she'd agreed. Whenever Josh had her in his arms he couldn't help but kiss her cheek from time to time, usually she would turn around and kiss his lips whenever he did that, but now there was hardly any reaction from her at all. She would simply stiffen for a moment before her body relaxed again. He reached for the remote and paused the movie.

"Why did you stop the movie Josh?" Maya turned around to face him.

"Are you sure that yu don't want to talk to me about it Maya?"

"I'm serious Josh, you don't have to worry about it." Maya insisted once more despite the act that the voice in her head was screaming at her louder than ever.

"I can't help but worry about it Maya, that's just how it is to be in love." Josh said. Both of them froze out of fear. 'oh crap! It's too early isn't it?' Josh thought as he watched Maya's terrified expression.

"They were right?" Maya whispered.

* * *

" _I'm just going to immerse myself in my art until I can figure out what's going on with my head." Maya told herself. She brought out the painting of Josh that she'd started as well as the photograph that she was using. "He really is perfect." Maya said tracing her fingers down the cheek of the portrait. "Why would he ever want me?" It was Maya's biggest fear, that the relationship would end someday. That she wouldn't be enough for him. Nothing good ever came to stay, that was how it had always been for Maya. She always ended up losing the things that were most precious to her after some time and the more important they were to her the more it hurt when she lost them. Maya had never felt what she felt for Josh before, no feeling had ever been that strong before. If she was going to lose him as well she didn't know how she was going to come back from it. "It's going to be alright." She told herself. Riley had told her that Josh loved her and she'd made some solid points too, but then she remembered her mother's story. Her mother had fallen in love with her father and she'd thought that he loved her too only to get completely broken when he left her. Was that going to happen to her?_

 _After a while of painting while deep in her thoughts she took a step back to admire the finished product. She hadn't been aware of the fact that she was finished with the painting until her body moved on its' own. When she looked at the photo that she'd taken she noticed something strange about the painting. Around Josh's neck there was a necklace. It was like those that you would see girls wearing. Just a simple word bound by some chains. While most girls only had one word, either their name or the name of their boyfriend, Josh's had three words: I love you._

 _She didn't see the necklace in the photo that she'd taken and she couldn't remember Josh owning such a thing which meant that she'd added her own thoughts into the painting. She loved him. She broke down crying, swearing and wishing that love never existed. She didn't want it, she wouldn't be able to live with the pain that followed so close behind it._


	21. Everyone leaves eventually

**Okay so I didn't update during easter and I'm really sorry about that, but I hope you had a good time. Uodates will come once a week at least I hope so I really think that the story is going where it should be.**

 **Everyone leaves eventually**

* * *

"I'm sorry I said it Maya, I didn't mean to freak you out Maya." Josh said as Maya Walked around the room trying to calm what was now starting to look like a rapidly aproaching panic attack.

"So you don't love me?" Maya asked and Josh couldn't help but notice that her voice sounded hopeful.

"I'm sorry I said it Maya, but it's the truth. I'm in love with you and I don't want to lie to the woman that I love. I don't know how you're feeling right now, but just know that whatever you decideon that I'm still going to love you."

"I-I can't say it back Josh, I'm sorry I just can't." Maya tried pinching her hand to kee herself from panicing and the pain helper her calm down.

"It's okay." Josh said walking over to her to stop her from pinching herself. "You're drawing blood Maya, please stop."

"Sorry, I just paniced a bit. I didn't want this to end so soon. I finally got what I wanted and then it's gone again in no time at all." Maya couldn't stop the tears streaming down her face. She loved him, but she couldn't tell him. If the pain that she felt now was just a taste of the pain that she would have to endure somewhere down the road then she didn't think that she would be able to survive it.

"Why does it have to end Maya?" Josh was getting worried now, he kew that he'd said it too early, but he didn't see why she had to break up with him because of it. "I know that I said it too soon, but you don't have to say anything until you're ready Maya."

"That's just it Josh." The tears were making it hard for her to keep her eyes open, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from the guy in front of her and the effect her words were having on him. "I don't think I'll ever be ready to say it. We have to break up."

"Why?" Josh didn't care how messed up he was looking by that point, it didn't matter that he as crying like crazy. All that mattered was her, his one love breaking his heart.

"I just can't Josh." She finally tore her eyes away from him and ran out the door.

Josh fell down on his knees looking at the closed door that Maya had just left through. He felt like the world had just played the worst joke in existence on him. He meant what he said when he told her that he would love her no matter what she said and as heartbroken as he was he stayed true to his words. He would love her even if she suddenly decided to hate him, he had no choice. He remembered how the tears had streamed down Maya's face during their conversation and decided that he had to do something. He picked up his phone and called the one person he knew could help Maya at that moment. Even though she'd broken his heart he knew that he would be ready to give her the broken bits that still remained if she ever wanted them.

* * *

"Hey." Maya heard the soft voice of Riley as the door to their dorm room opened. She looked up at her best friend as she tried to wipe the tears from her eyes.

"Did he call you?" Maya choked out. She knew Josh was a great guy, but she'd never heard of a guy sending someone to check on the girl who dumped them.

"Yeah, what happened?" Riley hadn't gotten any details from Josh. Josh had been crying the whole phon call and the only words that she'd manage to decipher between the sobs where 'Maya needs you', that had been enough for Riley though and she'd left Lucas to find her. Lucas had assured Riley that he would go check on Josh for her.

"I broke up with Josh." Maya told Riley and just as she'd finished wiping away the last of her tears Riley embraced her in a hug.

"Why?" they'd seemed so happy when they'd finally gotten together and Riley couldn't figure out why two people that perfect for each other needed to be apart.

"He told me he loved me."

"Why did you break up with him because of that, you love him too don't you?" When Maya nodded Riley continued. "If you love him then why don't you want to be with him?"

"Because if I stayed with him then it would only have been more painful when he left me. I don't think I would survive it if that happened."

"Why would he leave you if he loves you?"

"Everyone does, some just stay longer than others. Nothing good ever comes to stay for me Riley. I watched my dad leave my mom, I saw how that broke her. I don't want to go through that, I can't go through that."

"What happened to the painting that you were going to give him, the painting that would show him how much you loved him. You were ready to tell him just a few days ago Maya."

"When I realized during our talk that Josh might be in love with me I felt only fear. I love him, I really do. Still, I can't handle the pain that would eventually come when he'd leave me. Damage control is the one thing that I'm good at Riley." When Maya brought the back of a painting Riely could see that Maya had punched a hole through it. "I remember how excited Emily looked when she realized how Daimon feels about her and I just knew how much I wanted that, but I'm not like Emily. I'm broken and sooner or later Josh would have figured out that a perfect guy like him can do so much better than me." When Maya turned the painting around Riley gasped. The picture of Josh now had a gaping hole in the middle.

* * *

 **You probably hate me right not, but please tell me what you think about the chapter, I love getting your reviews so always appreciated. Until next time.**


	22. Love is meant to be shared

**I got so much hate for the last chapter with the way I broke those two up, well at least that means you care about the story so I couldn't be happier. i'm introducing Katy and Shawn in this chapter so I hope you like them. The story is progressing nicely and I'm hoping to tie up all the loose ends that I've left you with in the next ten chapters or so. Keep on giving me feedback, even if it is only to tell me how you hate me for breaking apart the couples in the story.**

 **Love is meant to be shared**

* * *

"Thanks for letting me stay home this weekend." Maya said hugging Shawn.

"No problem kid, I'm just happy that you're still calling this home." Shawn smiled at her, Maya tried to smile back, but none of the smiles that she'd forced on herself the past few days looked genuine. When she was alone she would still find herself breaking down and crying once in a while, but when she was with others she forced herself not to cry.

"Yeah, it feels good to call someplace home and right now this feels a whole lot more like home than the campus does." Maya said, she lifted up her bags and carried them to her room.

"Something's not right at all." Shawn turned to Katy who'd walked into the doorway.

"What do you think it is then?" Shawn asked her.

"She's my daughter, it probably has something to do with love." Katy said. "I can handle this while you make dinner."

"I would argue with you if this hadn't been about Maya. Fill me in later okay?" Shawn said and walked past her towards the kitchen.

"Yeah I will." Katy told him.

"Hey." Katy said as she opened the door to Maya's room. "Is something wrong?" Maya looked up from her phone and Katy could see tears streaming down her daughters face.

"I broke up with Josh." Maya choked out. When Katy found out that she'd been right she ran towars the bed and enveloped Maya in a hug.

"I wasn't aware that there even was something like you and Josh." Katy said, she'd known that Maya liked Josh, but not that they'd gotten together.

"We went out on Saturday and it was all perfect, the perfect date with the perfect guy. Then he told me that he loved me this Wednesday, but I just couldn't say it back. I know that I do, but I'm just so..."

"scared?" Katy cut her daughter off. She knew that this was her past relationship's fault. It wasn't Maya's fault and it wasn't fair that Maya suffered because of it. "It's okay to be scared Maya, you haven't had an easy childhood and because of that you have trouble trusting anything good that comes into your life. Still, you can't close yourself off from love. In the long run you won't want to either."

"but if it hurts like this now, how am I supposed to handle the pain later."

"The fact that it hurts now is proof enough that what you had was real, some things are worth taking a chance for Maya. You still have a chance to have all this Maya."

"I tried mom, I really tried to say it, but I couldn't get the words out. What if I'm never able to say the words. What if I stay with Josh and he showers me with all of this yet I'm unable to give anything back to him."

"Oh Maya, You don't have to worry about that." Katy told her. "If he really loves you like he says he does then he's going to prove it to you for the rest of your life until you'll be ready to tell him."

"What makes you so sure that I'm ever going to be able to tell him?"

"Because you really do love him." Katy told her and kissed her daughter's forehead. "And love is meant to be shared."

"Okay, so who am I going to kill?" when Katy furrowed her brows Shawn sighed, "Who broke her heart then?"

"She broke up with Josh." Katy corrected him, when Shawn only sighed Katy knew that he'd known about the couple longer than him.

"Figured that might have been it,"

"So you knew about her and Josh?"

"Well, anyone could see that Maya liked Josh when they were younger." Katy nodded and Shawn continued. "Josh wasn't all that hard to figure out either. I would always help him photograph when we went to the Matthews for dinners and such. There was something about the smile on his face as he looked at Maya that made me certain that he felt something for her. Something that as way too strong to be contained. It was only a matter of time before he acted on those feelings."

"You didn't think to maybe tell me about this?" Katy had already figured that much out herself, but she just loved making Shawn squirm a bit. She would never take it too far though, she wasn't going to make Shawn feel bad for something she wasn't really mad about.

"I was kind of hoping that nothing would happen so I hoped that I didn't need to." Shawn shrugged nervously.

"Why wouldn't you want anything to happen?"

"Because I don't want boys!" Shawn complained.

"I sometimes forget how alike you and Cory are."Katy giggled and Shawn visibly relaxed. It always amazed Shawn how much she was able to cal him down. Just a laugh and everything would suddenly be alright.

"Enough about that now, do you think our daughter is going to be okay?" Shawn asked her.

"Yeah, she definitely will."

"How do you know?"

"Because she's our daughter, I love how you say that by the way." Katy leaned over and pecked Shawns' lips. "We both had our share of rough experiences with love, ut we both ended up with the person we were meant to be with." she kissed him again "So how are you going to deal with Josh coming over here tomorrow for some photography tips? You won't be too hard on the boy right? He already got his heart broken so he doesn't need you to step on it as well."

"I wouldn't do that. I was actually going to help him," When Katy reaised an eybrow Shawn continued, "I'm serious, I've kind of been like an older brother to the kid since he was born. I want him to be happy and i definitely want Maya to be happy."

"I think we can both agree on that."


	23. Good Morning Beautiful

**I should have updated yesterday, but I was so busy during the day and then my network crashed sometime during the evening. Here is the latest chapter and I hope you like it. There are some parts that I didn't like too much myself, but hopefully the finished thing doesn't look too bad.**

 **Good Morning Beautiful**

* * *

"Hey kid." Shawn said as he opened the door and welcomed Josh inside. "How are you doing?"

"I've been better to be honest." Shawn figured that had to be the understatement of the century, but then again Maya answered in the same way and she looked almost as bad as him. He had bags under his eyes and his eyes were red from constant crying. He still had a severe case of bedhead which surprised Shawn seeing as Josh was almost as particuar about his hair as Shawn had been when he was younger.

"Yeah, you really took the breakup hard didn't you?" Shawn asked, when Josh looked up with a confused expression on his face Shawn elaborated, "Maya came home for the weekend and she told Katy last night.

"Is she here?" Josh asked, as much as he missed her he knew that she wouldn't want to see him yet.

"no, I told Katy that you were coming over so she took Maya with her to work. We both figured she needed some time before she saw you again."

"Are you mad at me?" Josh asked, he knew that his relationship with Maya was over, but he couldn't help but want the approval of the people that were most important to Maya nonetheless.

"No." Shawn smiled at him. "I'm not mad at you, I'm just glad that my daughter found someone who loves her."

"Yeah she did, but she doesn't want me Shawn."

"She broke up with you because she couldn't say I love you back, right?" Josh nodded. "It doesn't mean that she doesn't like you Josh. She might just be scared."

"Of what?"

"You know about her dad right?" Shawn clenched his teeth, he didn't like talking about that guy, the guy that had caused so much pain for his family. "he did a number on Katy when he left her, but nobody really understood the impact him leaving had on Maya. She saw the effect that losing a loved one had on her mother and decided that she couldn't handle that herself."

"Yeah, but I'm not like her father." Josh argued. "I won't leave her."

"You say that now, but there's no guarantee that those feelings are going to last forever Josh." he held up a hand to silence Josh's protest, "Feelings change Josh, and maybe you won't feel the same tomorrow. Here's what I want you to do though, don't give up on her when you're still in love with her. If for some reason your feelings change someday then you're just going to have to make sure that you leave on good terms. I want her to be with a guy that loves her, and right now that guy is you Josh."

* * *

After Josh had gotten over the fact that Shawn actually wanted him to get back together with Maya they started working on the photographing. Josh was always amazed by how much he learned by visiting Shawn and he concluded once more that he had a lot to learn.

"You're really coming along as a photgrapher." Shawn complimented Josh at the end of the day. "I hope your psychology grades aren't suffering too bad because of this though. Not that you'd need them if you just joined our company."

"You really think I'm good enough to join your company?"

"You will be after another few months of practice so when you finally graduate I don't see any problem with hiring you." Shawn saw Josh's face light up and had to smile himself. "For now though you hve more important things to focus on."

"Yeah, I'm not going to give up school jut because I've got a job waiting for me. Don't worry about that."

"Oh, I wasn't talking about that. I'm going to need you to fix with things with my daughter."

"I'll do my best, I love her after all." Josh promised. "Bye Shawn, thanks a lot for the help."

"No problem, just call me if you need more help with the photography."

"I wasn't talking about that, but sure." Josh smiled and turned round to leave.

* * *

Maya groaned when she turned around in her bed to asnwer the phone. She'd been half asleep and so she'd answered the phone without looking at the caller.

"You'd better have a damn good reason for calling me when I'm sleeping." she started.

"I have a reason for calling, but knowing you it's probably not food enough to get away with waking you up." Josh said at the other end of the line.

"Josh?" Maya asked and Immediately felt awake.

"Good morning beautiful." Josh said. Every logical part of his brain had been against him calling her, but after spending the day at her house with Shawn he just couldn't help but call her.

"It's early evening Josh." Maya informed him after checking the time on her phone. "No one would say good morning at this time of day."

"Sorry, but I did wake you up after all."

"Yeah you did, so what's the reason for it?" Maya said. Talking to Josh was emotionally draining so she had to make sure tha she stayed mad at him to keep herself from crying and asking for his forgiveness.

"I wanted to ask if you wanted to join me, Emily and Daimon on monday for some games at the arcades and a slice of pizza afterwards?"

"You know I broke up with you right?" Maya asked and she had to dig her nails into her hand to keep herself from crying.

"Believe me, I know. It wasn't my idea though, Emily suggested it. I just had a sneaking suspicion that you were sleeping so I volunteered to call."

"Um, sure I guess." Maya Answered and Josh had to bite his lips to keep himself from shuting out loud.

"Great, I'll tell them you said yes. Good night Maya." after a little pause he added three words; "I love you." before hanging up.


	24. All I see is him

**All I see is him**

* * *

"So you're coming right?" Emily found Mya the moment she walked into the arts class and sat down next to her. Emily was always this timid girl, but that never stopped her when her friends needed her.

"Yeah, Josh convinced me."

"Great, so he wasnt making it up," Emily let out an awkward chuckle. "This double date would have been so weird without you being there."

"Josh didn't ask me as if this was a date you know, in fact he kind of assured me that it wasn't."

"Oh that, well I told him it wasn't. I'm telling you it is though so wear something that you think Josh will like." Emily turned around and focused on the teacher that had just started his lesson.

"Why do you want to make this a double date Emily? You know that I broke up with Josh right, it's over."

"You say that, but have you taken a look at what you're drawing?" Maya always doodled on the pages of her notebook during her teacher's lectures when she wasn't taking notes. It was just that though, just a doodle which had no particular form or resemblance of anything.

"It's just me doodling, it doesn't mean any..." she took a look down at her notebook, staring up at her were the warm eyes of Josh. The drawing wasn't finished by a long shot, but she realized that she had a problem. The drawing was turning out almost excactly the way her painting had done, complete with the necklace around his neck saying 'I love you'. She took a long look at the drawing and did her best to stop the tears from falling. It wouldn't do to break down in the middle of the class. She ripped the page out of the book and crumpled the paper. Emily's eyes followed Maya as she walked over to the trash can to throw it away.

"why did you do that? It was really good." Emily asked.

"I don't need to keep reminding myself of what I've lost. Me and Josh is over I don't deserve him." Maya stated and for the first time since the teacher walked into the classroom he had Maya's attention.

* * *

Josh wasn't doing very well that Monday. He thanked god when the bell rang and he could run off to eat lunch.

"So," Daimon caught up with Josh just as he walked out the main entrance of the school. "Emily told Maya that it was a date, did you know about that?" he knew for a fact that Josh didn't know, but this seemed like the best way to bring it up. Josh's eyes widened and he stopepd walking.

"Why would she do that? I thought she wanted Maya to come with us, this is just going to make Maya stay in her dorm room for the rest of the day."

"Emily told me she has a plan, that's all I know. She hasn't told me what it is." Josh raised and eyebrow, there was something that Daimon wasn't telling him and he wanted to know what it was. "I do have an idea however, but you're just going to have to figure it out on your own. My advice is this, trust Emily. She's a smart girl."

* * *

Maya had never appreciated the fact that she only had arts class in common with Emily as much as she did that day. She didn't want to speak with her until their supposed double date later that day. It wasn't Josh's faut that Emily had decided to make it a date and so she didn't feel like she could just stay at the dorm and leave him alone with Daimon and Emily.

She entered her dorm room about five minutes after her english teacher allowed the class to leave, just as she did after every schoolday where they'd had arts class she felt an intense need to do something artistic. She sat down at her desk and found a blank sheet of paper and her pencil.

* * *

"I figured that I would find you here Maya." Emily said as she opened the door and saw Maya sitting at her chair staring at her drawing. She was dressed in a mid length white dress, obviously dressed for the date. When she noticed Maya wasn't moving she walked over to her. "You've been crying." Emily said softly. Maya's eyes were red and Emily could still see where the tears had been falling on the desk. The drawing though had escaped damage. It was a drawing of Josh, just like the one that she'd made during class.

"I can't draw anything else, all I see is him and I don't know why." a lone tear ran down Maya's left cheek. Emily reached over and wiped the tear away.

"You love him."

"I can't help myself. I love him, but I can't say it to him. The words won't come out."

"Distancing yourself from him isn't going to work though. It's only going to make it worse for both of you, so why don't you try giving him another chance?"

"It's not about me giving him another chance, I know that he deserves it and I would take him back in a heartbeat. It just isn't fair though."

"Fair? To who?"

"It isn't fair to him that I take him back, he told me that he loved me and I broke up with him. I know that he was telling the truth, yet I rejected him. I don't deserve him after that. He deserves to be with someone who can tell him that she loves him back."

"Now that's just stupid!" Emily frowned and turned around.

"How is that stupid? Just because everything is so freaking perfect in your relationship with Daimon doesn't mean that it's like that for everyone you know?"

"Perfect? No, our relationship is not perfect. I still haven't told Daimon that I love him."

* * *

 **So, I know you weren't expecting that last one. Well, you might not see the big significance of the ending of this chapter, but I can guarantee that it's important to the rest of the story. As always tell me your thoughts on the chapter and critique me where critique is due. I will get back to you in a week or so with a new chapter. Until then enjoy.**


	25. The boy I fell in love with

**_The boy I fell in love with_ , by _Emily Evans_**

* * *

"Perfect? No our relationship is not perfect. I still haven't told Daimon I love him." Maya tood there stunned. Daimon and Emily seemed so happy together and Maya knew that Daimon had told Emily that he was in love with her the previous week. Maya wondered how they managed to avoid ending up like her and Josh.

"Does that mean that you don't love him then? How come you're still together with him then? Don't you feel like you're being cheap?"

"No, he knows that I like him and I think he suspects that I love him too. I do love him, I just can't tell him. It's not me to pour out my feelings for a guy. There are more ways to show someone that you love them though. I have something planned for tonight, something that will finally show him how I feel."

"If you have something like that planned then don't you think that you should just go the two of you alone so that Josh and I don't intrude on the special moment?" Maya knew that if it was her then something like that would be something she'dwant to keep private and just between Josh and her.

"No, I'm fine with this actually. I think this will help you and Josh too. If I'm right then that's all the reason I need to show you." Emily stepped back and took a look at Maya.

"We do have to do something about you though, we can't let Josh see you with a tear stained face. Especially not when the plan that I have is going to leave you smiling in the end."

"But we don't have time." Maya tried to wipe away the dried up tears and started towards the door.

"Oh we do, I just need to send a quick text to Daimon and we're in the clear."

"That boy would do anything for you." Maya told her and smiled.

"As would I for him, as would Josh for you."

"I know." Maya smiled shyly and her cheeks turned red.

* * *

"So, Emily said that they would be half an hour late right?" Daimon sighed, Josh had been pacing around the dorm room ever since Daimon got the text from Emily.

"Yeah, which means that they're going to be here right about now." Daimon held up three fingers counting down before opening the and grabbing Emily's hand which was about to hit him in the face. "Hey Beautiful." he said and pulled her in for a hug.

"Sorry that we're a bit late, I needed Maya's help to get my hair right." Emily lied. Maya stepped in and Josh immediately focused on her. She was wearing a simple white dress that stopped just above her knees and her hair had loose curls at the end. It was such a simple look, 'a simple look for the least simple girl in the world.' Josh thought.

"You look beautiful Maya." Josh barely managed to get out.

"Thanks, " Maya smiled shyly. "you don't look too bad yourself either." Josh thought she had to be seeing wrong because compared to her his simple look wasn't even worth mentioning.

"So, are you ready to go?" Daimon broke the moment that was rapidly turning awkward for the pair and they all headed out the door.

* * *

"So, Maya beat us all at every game? I need to come here more often." Daimon said, he was sitting with an arm over Emily's shoulder.

"You know," Emily started as she turned around to look at Daimon. "there are more important things than beating everyone at arcade games."

"are you sure? Like what?" Daimon raised an eyebrow.

"Like me of course. Which reminds me, I have something for you." Emily reached into her small purse and pulled out a book." the binding wasn't particularily fancy, but at the spine of the book Maya saw something that made her gasp. It only took Daimon a moment to notice it as well and he turned to Emily.

"Are you serious? Are you really serious Emily?" when Daimon turned the book around so that the other two could see the cover they read the title and the author " _The boy I fell in love with,_ by _Emily Evans_. "You really wrote a book?"

"Yeah, I want to be an author. You know how I've been dodging this topic ever since we got together? I wanted to surprise you with this. This is what I've been working on on my computer Maya." Emily turned to Maya and it was clear that this part was meant for her. "There are several ways to say something Maya, a book is my way."

"You mean?" Daimon pointed to the title of the book with his eys trained carefully on her as if the moment would disappear if he took his eyes of her.

"I changed two things in that book, I changed our names and I changed something about your confession. Otherwise I left it the same, it's our story." Emily gently took the book out of Daimon's hand and turned to the final page. "Read this Daimon." she held the book out for him to read and Maya saw he was tearing up. When he was done reading Emily surprised Maya by handing her the book.

 _"What?" Emily asked staring wide eyed at Daimon. Maya too was shocked, she'd told him that she would handle talking to Emily but here he was blurting out a love confession in front of a large crowd._

 _"I'm in love with you Emily and I don't care what I have to do to prove it to you, if saying it to you like this where there's no way that I can take it back is what it takes then fine by me. I just can't stand the idea of you not talking to me. I love talking to you, you challenge me to be a real person and not just the dickhead that I've been for the lest few years." Daimon said stepping towards her. The crowd that had gathered where whispering to each other, no doubt surprised by this new side of Daimon._

" _Why did you say it out loud here with all these people?" Emily murmured so low that only she, Maya and Daimon could hear it. "You won't be able to pick up another girl now, what are you going to do when you're done with me."_

" _Don't you get it? I don't want to ever be done with you. I love you and I don't want that to change, I know that the feeling that I get when I talk to you won't disappear and I won't feel like that with anyone else. I don't want to fell like that with anyone else. Please Emily, you don't have to say it back, but please let me have another chance. I know that I screwed up last night and went too far, but that won't ever happen again, I promise. Please be my girlfriend" Daimon had gotten close enough to grasp Emily's hand and he stood there waiting for a reply. Emily looked down towards the ground and for a moment Maya feared that she was going to reject Daimon, but then she looked up with a smile on her face and sparkling eyes showing that she was on the verge of crying tears of joy. She nodded and Daimon pulled her into his arms._

" _I love you too Daimon." she whispered just loud enough for Daimon to hear._

 **I'm serious guys? Girls? I think my readers are mostly girls anyways. You have to tell me if i mess something up or if you notice something strange. I just noticed I'd left this kind of huge mistake about 13 chapters ago so shame on me, luckily I fixed it now so no need to worry. This has to be on of the chapters that I'm most happy with. I hope you all enjoyed it. So until next week I assign you the task of telling me what I did wrong and what you all thought about the chapter.**


	26. Clichés and Familiarities

**Cliche's and familiarities**

* * *

After Daimon put away the book that he'd gotten from Emily the date continued on likeit had before, although, two things had changed: Daimon would always hold on to Emily's hand and sometimes he'd pull her towards him just to kiss her. Contrary to how Emily usually felt aout PDA she was now perfectly happy with reciprocating. Maya didn't pay attention to any of that, her mind was racing. She couldn't wait to get back to her dorm room. Sure she enjoyed the date night, even though Josh made sure that he didn't go too far so that he didn't make Maya uncomfortable she still felt his eyes on her throughout most of the night. Now though for the first time since he'd told her that he loved her his gaze didn't make her uncomfortable, it made her feel good to know that he enjoyed being with her. She was determined to fix things now and she knew just how she was going to accomplish that.

"I'm really sorry if Emily made things weird by saying that this was a date Maya." Josh said. They'd ended up going to the bowling alley after they'd eaten and as Josh and Maya watched Daimon try to help Emily throw the ball Josh felt that he had to apologize.

"Oh you don'thave to be sorry about that, I know that this was all Emily and nt your fault. Besides, to them this is a date, I can't believe how cute that thing that Emily did was."

"Yeah, she is something, thanks for not being mad at me." he had to stifle a laugh when he saw how much Daimon screwed up when it ws his turn. "I'll be right back, I just have t go show my roommate how to do this." Maya smiled as Josh walked over to the lane when it was his turn. He took a deep breath and made the shot. Maya had to admit that Josh wasn't bad at bowling when she saw him pull of a strike.

"I really needed a date with you." she whispered to herself.

"So, I get the feeling that you've come to some sort of realization with how you're feeling towards Josh. Did my book help you?" Maya took a look around to see if Daimon was anywhere close by before answering.

"Well I've known for about a week now that I love him, but you certainly gave me an idea of how to show him that I really do feel the same way he does. I thought he deserved better, but now I see that I will never find anyone better than him so I'm going to do my best to show him how I feel. After that I'll just have hope that he will give me another chance."

"I don't think you'll have to worry about whether or not he's going to take you back. That guy would do anything for you."

"I kinda get the feeling that you're right. I'm just now realizing just how great he really is, and how much I'd be willing to sacrifice for him. The thing is though, he wouldn't let me sacrifice anything for him."

"I think Daimon is the same way." Emily put her arm over Maya's shoulder and pulled her close to her head on Maya's shoulder. "We really have great boyfriends."

* * *

"Okay, you need to get out of here Riley, I need to make something." Maya said as she entered the dorm room.

"What the? Maya? It's 10pm on a school night and you want to start painting now? I'm about to go to sleep now, where do you want me to stay for the night?"

"Sleep with your cowboy or something, please Riley I really need to make it. I haven't been painting for like five days, it's killing me!"

"Okay, I'm not okay with this, but I always sleep better with Lucas anyways so I'll manage somehow."

"Oh I bet you do." Maya commented, but she quickly fell silent when Riley shot her a dirty look.

"Don't push me now Maya, you're already threading on thin ice you know."

"Sorry Riley, just please leave now and I won't say anything else." Riley sighed and left the room leaving Maya with the room to herself. "Now, let's get busy."

* * *

Maya lost track of time as she worked on the painting, as usual she wasn't even conscious of what her hands were doing. Painting, drawing, it always came so naturally for her and some of her best work had been done without her even realizing it. It quickly became obvious that this was one of those cases. As the hours flew by Maya just lost herself to the painting and the music that she had playing in the background.

The painting felt so familiar, though it wasn't the same as she'd made a dozen times in the past. This one had Maya in it too, she was standing behind Josh. It was sort of a reverse of the cliché where the boyfriend puts a necklace around the girl's neck. The necklace though didn't have an M for Maya, instead it said _I Love You_ Maya was whispering something in Josh's ear while she was grinning. After almost a week of fearing the word it felt strange that she now felt so comfortable with it. she knew she wasn't saying it, but as Emily had pointed out, she didn't necessarily have to say it. This was her way of showing that she felt just as strongly about him as he had told her he did. Now she just hoped that getting turned down hadn't changed everything.

"Now this, is perfect." Maya said smiling to herself. She put down the brush and pulled out her phone. "Yeah, 4 am seems about right I suppose." as she walked towards her bed she realized that she'd never been morecomfortable knowing that she was going to be feeling sleep deprived the next day.

* * *

 **Okay so so many of you asked what my mistake was, I actually had to copy the writing from Emily's book directly from the chapter where Daimon tells her he loves her. Which means that the part where Emily said she hadn't said she loved him was actually wrong because technically she had. I corrected the mistake as best I could and luckily none of you noticed so it seems I was lucky. It's also been 3 weeks since I last updated and for that I'm terribly sorry, I was home for 10 days which meant that I was gone for two weeks worth of updates. I had my computer with me, but catching up with friends back home was my main priority. I'm going to be posting regularly from now on so I'm hoping to slowly but surely make it up to you. I'm also wondering whether I should make a sequel now that the main plot of this story is coming to a close of if I should simply continue on with the same story and just expand it. Please tell me what you think.**

 **As always, remember to give me your thoughts on the chapter, it really does help with my motivation to know that there are people out there who appreciate the hours I put into making the stories I write.**


	27. Coooookieeee!

"Hey." in spite of only sleeping for a few hours Maya felt completely rejevunitaded as she talked to Josh on the phone.

"good morning Beautiful," Josh answered back, Maya had to smile at that. His constant compliments only made her want to show him the painting even more.

"Thanks for yesterday."

"No problem Maya, I'm just glad that you didn't think it was awkward being there with me."

"No, I'm sure it would have been a lot more awkward without you there. Daimon and Emily was kind of going all out with the PDA."

"That they were." Josh agreed. Daimon and Emily hadn't really been one of those couples that was heavy on showering each other with affection, but he supposed that knowing that your love is reciprocated does something to a guy because Daimon had not been able to let go of Emily.

"Anyways, the reason why I'm calling is because I was wondering if you wanted to come over to our dorm room after you finished your classes for the day?"

"Sure, any particular reason as to why you want me to come over?"

"Riley needed some help with a photo or something, it's supposed to be a gift for Lucas I think." Maya lied effortlessly.

"Okay I can come over, why didn't she call me herself though?"

"She came up with it this morning, but Lucas barged in before she could call you so she asked me to do it instead. You know how she is, she would have just forgotten about it if I didn't call you." Maya thanked Cory for giving her lessons in lying her way out of doing homework. Who knew that not doing your homework could pay off like that?

"That's true, I'll be there Maya. You can tell Riley that she doesn't have to worry."

"Thanks Josh, I gotta start getting ready for my morning classes now so I'll talk to you later or something?" she would definitely talk to him late, but she figured that Josh didn't have to know that until later.

"Yeah, bye Maya," he paused for a moment before looking at the phone. "I love you." he added before pressing the red button to hang up. Maya put the phone in her pocket and turned around to look at the picture that she'd made the previous night.

"I was hoping you did." she said grinning from ear to ear.

* * *

As lunchtime came Maya was so ready for school to be over for the day she'd made all the preparations for when Josh came over and she was getting fed up with waiting. She sat with Riley during her break and she was talking excitedly about how she was back to being top of the class in arts again.

"There's Josh." Riley pointed out and stood up, "I'll be right back." Riley told her.

"What? Why?" Maya panicked. She hadn't told Riley about her plans and she just knew that it would all fall apart if Riley talked to Josh.

"I owe him five dollars so I'm just going to give them back to him before I forget it, you know how easily I forget stuff like that."

"No you can't!" Maya all but shouted at her best friend.

"Why not? He's right there, I'll be right back Maya. I just need to talk to him before he leaves." Maya considered her options. Josh was about to leave, but that didn't stop Riley from just following him outside after all. She did the only sensible thing that she could come up with. She tackled Riley.

Riley fell to the ground with a loud scream. "What are you doing Maya?" Riley asked as Maya locked her arms behind her back to keep her pinned to the ground. Maya took a look at where Josh had jut walked out to see if he'd heard the commotion, when she didn't see him sheturned her attention back to Riley.

"I'll buy you one of those chocolate chip cookies that Lucas won't let you have if you don't talk to Josh today and don't ask me why." to anyone else that would have sounded ridiculous, but Maya knew Riley. Her eyes lit up at the prospect of eating oe of the forbidden cookies and Maya knew that she had her.

"Deal!" Riley turned around and grinned at her best friend. Maya got off her and helped her friend up. When they were both up Maya noticed that they'd gotten quite a crowd watching the entire thing unfold.

"What are you looking at?" she sneered at them. Everyone immediately went back to what they'd been doing before. "That's what I thought."

* * *

Josh knocked at Riley and Maya's dorm room, but no one answered. He waited ten seconds before trying again, still no response. He checked the door and found it open. He figured it would be alright to wait inside seeing as Maya had told him that Riley wanted to see him after school. As he walked in he noticed a note that was laying on the floor. Written in Large letters on the note he saw his name. He picked it up and turned it around to read the contents.

 _Dear Josh, I am so sorry for the way I've treated you this past week. You didn't deserve to get hurt by the person that you love and I'm sorry that I made you feel the way you did. I meant what I said when I told you that I'm not sure if I'll ever be ready to tell you that I love you. I figured that if that was the case then I didn't deserve to be with you. I thought that you would eventually figure out that you deserved someone better, someone capable of actually saying the words back. I thought that I had to break up with you, I didn't think I had a choice. I see now that I was wrong. On my desk there is a painting that is turned face down, read the note that I fastened on the back_ _._ Josh didn't understand what was going on, but he did as the letter instructed. He found the note and started to read it.

 _Yesterday changed everything for me. Emily showed me that there are other ways of showing how you feel about someone than words. I reailized my feelings for you a long time ago, but I never thought that I'd be able to do anything with them. Not until she showed me her way. I figured that had to be one of the most romantic things that I'd ever witnessed and it gave me an iea for how I wanted to do it. Now if you don't want to be with me then all you have to do is shake your head, but if you still have any feelings for me then just turn around._ As soon as Josh had read the last sentence he froze. He didn't know how anyone could be so amazing and he thanked god that she thought that he deserved her. He spun around and was met with a familiar pair of lips that covered his own.

"So I suppose this means you still want to be with me then?" Josh said breaking from the kiss.

"Yes it does Josh, you're the only one I can see myself with. I'm sorry that I almost pushed you away trying to realize that." Maya hadn't been able to keep herself from kissing him when she knew that he forgave her. Now she just had to give him her gift.

"I suppose Emily inspired you with the writing thing then? It was really beautiful what you wrote."

"Well she inspired me, but me writing wasn't a part of it. I actually made something for you." Maya brought her hand up to Josh's cheek and tiptoed to give him a little peck.

"Does this mean that I finally get to see the picture of me then?"

"That's not fair Josh." Maya frowned. It was supposed to be this big surprise, but he figured it out immediately.

"What do you mean? Is there something wrong?" Josh suddenly started feeling anxious wondering if he'd said something wrong.

"I had this big surprise for you and you figure it out all by yourself? That's just mean!" Maya pouted, but her pouting soon turned into giggling when Josh leaned down to kiss her.

"So, if I'm right again then the painting that this note was fastened on must be it then?" when Maya nervously nodded Josh turned around to take a look at it. Maya had never been so nervous to let anyone see her art before, but she easily considered this to be her most important work yet. She watched Josh pick it up to turn it around. While Josh was completely focused on the painting in his hands Maya looked to Josh for any reaction. When she saw tears streaming down his face she panicked.

"Listen, I know it's not as good as what Emily did yesterday, but I had to do something. I had to show you how I feel about you. I'm sorry if it's not good enough, I did my best to prove to you that I'm in this as mch as you are." She watched Josh put the painting back on the table now face up and she slowly backed off to give him some space. She didn't know what was going on with him, but if she'd done something wrong then the last thing she wanted to do was to make it worse. When Josh spun around and grabbed her hand she melted into him as he pulled her close.

"don't you dare apologize to me for this, I love you too Maya. I don't know what I've done to deserve someone like you, but I swear that I will never let you go." as Josh leaned down to kiss her Maya knew that she would never let him go either.

* * *

 **Okay so the main plot that was my idea for the story is coming to a close, but I have an idea for a sequel which is going to be coming soon. It is going to be an extension of this story which is why I'm going to continue this story and not make a separate one. Updates are still going to come out regularly and I hope that I can keep up at least the level of quality that I've had up til now.**

 **Remember to give me feedback, especially if there's something I could improve on. see you next week or something like that.**

 **I added on a little something at the end of the chapter, I figured that it would fit better than just adding on a smaller chapter. Hope you enjoy it.**


	28. Donuts and Bedheads

**Donuts and Bedhair**

* * *

 _"Are you ready for your christmas present Maya?" Josh asked. Maya didn't think that she could be any happier than she was in that moment, she didn't need a present when she had him._

 _"Josh, you didn't have to get me a present, just being able to spend christmas with you is good enough for me." Maya insisted, but Josh held up a hand to silence her._

 _"Now I could choose to believe that, but that would make the lousiest boyfriend in the world wouldn't it?"_

 _"Not really, in my eyes you're still the best guy I could ever ask for."_

" _I know that you feel that way and believe me that maes me really happy, but I really like making you happy so I felt like giving you this." Josh handed her a small box and Maya eagerly opened it. Inside she found a charm bracelet. The bracelet had two charms already added on to it. One said Josh and the other was a paint brush._

" _I love it Josh." Maya said and leaned forward to kiss him. "This must have cost you a fortune though, you didn't have to do this you know?"_

" _I wanted to Maya, I love you." Josh smiled at her and leaned in for another sweet kiss._

" _I love you too." Maya said as they broke the kiss. Josh pulled her towards him and helped her so that she was sitting in his lap with her arms wrapped around his neck. As she leaned forward to rest her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes she knew that she could fall asleep right then and there. As the darkness welcomed her she knew that she would never want to leave that place, everything felt so perfect except for the vice that kept whispering in her head._

" _Maya, Maya, Maya" she heard what she now recognized as Riley's voice repeat over and over._

" _Not now Riley." Maya groaned._

" _Fine then, let's do this the hard way."_

* * *

When Riley told her that they were going to do it the hard way Maya didn't realize what that meant until she rolled off the bed and fell flat on her butt.

"Ow Riley! Couldn't you have found some other way to wake me up?" she told Riley while she rubbed her sore butt.

"I tried talking to you, but you wouldn't wake up. This way is so much more fun than just closing your mouth and nose. I could try throwing stuff at you the next time if you want?" Maya just groaned.

"I was having such a nice dream and you had to wake me up."

"Which one was it this time?" Maya always told Riley about her dreams, she had several different ones, but all the good ones had Josh in them.

"Christmas, he gave me the bracelet." Maya rubbed her arm as if there was something missing. She knew the bracelet wasn't real, but she really wished it was.

"I like that one." Riley smiled, "you never know, come Christmas it might be a reality."

"No it won't you know that the bracelet isn't the important part of the dream; Yes it is the perfect gift, but I was able to tell Josh that I loved him in that dream, that isn't something that's likely to happen anytime soon. I've told him that I most likey won't ever be ready to say that to him." Maya really wished that her childhood hadn't been so messed up, that way she might have been able to express her love with words. As it was now she was just glad that Josh wasn't so hung up on stuff like that.

"You've shown him how you feel and that's enough, I don't think there are many who can top that." When Maya finished getting dressed she picked up her phone to find that she had a message from Josh.

"Well he seems happy at least, he's buying me breakfast so see you later okay?" Maya had slammed the door shut before Riley could reply.

"without even saying thank you for waking her up." Riley mumbled just as the door opened again.

"Thanks for making my butt sore by the way." Maya said before slamming the door shut again.

* * *

"So Riley had to wake you up again?" Josh asked as Maya muched on a donut.

"Yeah, that obvious?"

"Just had a feeling." Josh shrugged, he wasn't about to point out anything that might get Maya angry at him.

"Liar, what was the big sign today?"

"You don't think that you having to say "today" is sign enough that I should be used to it by now?" When he noticed the unamused way she was looking at him he decided to tell her. "You didn't do your hair today Maya." Maya quickly found her phone to check her hair with the front camera.

"I look like a bum." she deadpanned. Josh knew that she would say something like that, she was always too hard on herself when it came to how she looked even though Josh knew that he thought she looked perfect no matter what.

"Well if that's true then at least we know one thing."

"And that is? Thread carefully here Josh or you might not like the consequences if you say something wrong."

"You would make the most beatiful bum in the world." Josh pulled Maya in for a kiss and Maya smiled against his lips.

"That was a pretty nice save Josh." she told him as they broke apart.

"Well I do know you quite well so I've gotten quite good at saying the right stuff."

"why you bothered getting to know me is beyond me though." Maya giggled at her own joke.

"I love you, it's the least I could do right?" Josh smiled at her.

"Come over here." Maya told him as she pulled him in for another kiss.

* * *

 **Yeah so this chapter is mostly fluff I suppose, but I think it gave you all a pretty good idea of the end goal of this part of the story. Remember to tell me your thoughts on the chapter. It serves as motivation and it really helps me believe that I could someday make it as an author. See you next week I hope.**


	29. Enter Farkle and Smackle

__**Enter Farkle and Smackle**

* * *

"Farkle called me last night." Riley informed Maya when they sat down at the student lounge.

"Really? What did he want to talk about?" Maya hadn't really heard all that much from Farkle or Smackle since they moved to New Haven to go to Yale. She couldn't deny though that she missed them, it just wasn't the same without the genious duo.

"apparently he was considering a transfer, well both of them were."

"You told him that that was a terrible idea right? They've worked so hard for their entire life to get into one of the contry's best universities, they shouldn't throw all that away just for us."

"Just for you?" Farkle asked from behind her. Maya squeaked in surprise. "You're making it sound like we're getting the short end of the stick." Maya jumped up to give Farkle a hug.

"not that I'm not happy to see you, because I am, I really am, but why are you here? Don't tell me that you've already made the transfer?"

"not yet, although we are pretty certain that we're going through with it." Maya heard Smackle say from behind her.

"Smackle! You're here too?" Maya held out her arms to her and gave Smackle a hug. Every time Maya hugged Msackle she was amazed at how the timid girl who froze up every time someone came close to her had changed.

"Yeah, I needed to check out NYU for myself, there are a few selling points that I had to see for myself before deciding whether I wanted to do this transfer or not."

"and now that you've seen them what do you think?"

"Oh, we are definitely doing this." Smackle stated.

"Are you really sure about this?" Maya asked them both. "I want you guys here and all, but you're at Yale. You're losing your opportunity to go to an excellent school, graduating from Yale basically means that you're set for life."

"We know, we are the geniuses after all. Don't worry though, we are still going to be graduating from Yale." Farkle told her, "we just found another way to do that, you see there are some benefits to being geniuses, you can do things your way."

"I'm still not following."

"we have the opportunity to take our degrees online and still graduate from Yale, but we wanted to take some extra courses that we felt would be more rewarding if we took them here. So we aren't throwing away anything if that's what you are afraid of Maya, we're just doing things our way."

"if that's the case then I'm all for it,"

"I told you Farkle," Riley said giggling.

"Well this calls for a celebration." Maya said, "We're going to Topanga's"

* * *

It took some time, but after an hour the entire group, now two members bigger sat at Topanga's. Josh had jumped at the idea of going to Topanga's when Maya had suggested it, but he was a little bit disappointed when Maya told him that they wouldn't be alone. His disappointment vanished almost immediately though when he head the reason. He wasn't that close to Farkle himself and he barely knew Smackle at all, but they were some of Maya's closest friends and that made them important to him too. He wasn't quite sure whether he would be intruding on them or not, but Maya assured him that they all wanted him there so he decided to tag along. Riley invited Emily too so by the end of it Daimon ended up getting dragged into the mess as well.

"So I see that some things have changed during these past few months." Farkle commented when they sat down. He'd been introduced to Daimon and Emily and he immediately decided that he liked them, but what was more surprising was Maya and Josh. Sure Farkle knew that Maya and Josh had feelings for each other all those years ago, but he was surprised at how comfortable they now seemed acting like a couple out in public.

"Yeah, a lot has changed." Maya said pulling Josh a little closer, "turns out we were ready, we just needed Daimon to give us a little push."

"A little?" Daimon commented. "a little push is locking someone in a closet together, what I did was way more than a little push. If a little push is like getting hit by someone riding a bike, then what I did was run over you with a freaking school bus!"

"Yeah, maybe you shouldn't talk so loudly like that." Maya gestured to the counter where her mom was eyeing them with an amused look.

"figuratively mrs. Hart, I meant it figuratively." Daimon almost shouted so that he was sure Katy heard him. The only only response that she made though was merely to raise her eyebrows.

"Smooth Daimon." Josh said cracking up.

"Well forget about that." Daimon said eager to change the topic. "When are you guys moving?"

"We have to go back this weekend, My dad is driving us up so that we can get all our stuff and then we're going to begin here next week.."

"So you're staying here for the rest of the week then?" Lucas asked. "You up for a gaming night tonight then? I\m sure I could get Zay to join us over skype as well."

"Yeah sure, but I didn't think that you were all that into games. Have you quit sports or something?"

"No, but I miss hanging out with my best friend and I figured I would have a better shot at you saying yes if asked you for a gaming night rather than going to a football game or something like that."

"Usually that would be true, but by this point it's been so long that I think I would say yes no matter what it was." Farkle admitted.

"Damn, should have gone for the football game thing." Lucas sighed as the rest of the table started laughing.

* * *

 **Wow I am terrible right? So sorry about my roughly two months of hiatus, I am going to try to get back into this story again I promise. These months have been crazy, between good and bad stuff going on in my life I just haven't managed to sit down to write a chapter for you. I am editing my very own original story that I am hoping to be able to publish and it is proving to take up quite a bit of time. on top of that I also resently started my first year at UiS For those of you who are from Norway you should know where that is. My point is that I am incredibly busy most of the time, but I will still try to make time for this story.**

 **I have to give some major credits to some of the people who seem to post a review of every chapter I put out here. With me deleting a chapter because it was temporary you all ended up unable to post a review of the new one as yourselves, but still you managed to find solutions. Some of you logged of and posted anonymously and one of you even sent me a pm. you guys make my day. Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you and to thank you. I probimse that I will do my best to ensure that it does not happen again.**


	30. Riley and her group dates again

**Riley and her group dates... again**

* * *

"So, you and Josh?" Smackle asked. Josh and Daimon had decided to join Lucas and Farkle's game night so the girls had decided to get together for a night of their own.

"Yeah, we patched things up again a couple of weeks ago. Sorry that I didn't tell you, things have been so crazy around here lately." Maya had felt bad about not updating Smackle on what was going on in New York, she knew that Riley was a lot better at that though. She was just surprised that Riley hadn't told Smackle about it.

"I get how you feel, it had been hard to keep in touch. I just hope that won't be a problem anymore."

"Of course not. We will be back to telling each other everything that's going on. You're moving here after all." Maya told her and pulled Smackle closer so she could put and arm around her.

"This changes so much though," Riley said, "this means that our group dates just got even bigger."

"Riley," Maya groaned, "I've told you before, Josh and I prefer to have our dates in private. Besides, we haven't really done all that much together lately so I would like to have him for myself for a little while longer."

"But he's my uncle Maya." Riley complained.

"I know, that makes me your aunt so you have to listen to me." Maya stuck out her tongue while Emily and Smackle started laughing.

"Yeah, about that. I've told you, you are not going to be my aunt."

"Yeah, you told me that like four or five years ago, right? How do feel about that now that it is an actual chance that you will end up with me as your aunt?"

"I don't like it." Riley said crossing her arms.

* * *

"So, what do you think they're talking about over at the girls' dorm?" Farkle asked.

"If I know my girl she's either trying to convince the others that group dates are a good idea or she's complaining about Maya becoming her aunt." Lucas said scratching his head. Game night was definitely something Lucas had started to enjoy. At the moment they were playing _Rocket League_ with Zay joining them online. Lucas hadn't realized how much he'd missed his friends until they were well into their second game and Zay started making fun of Lucas.

"Yeah, that does sound like something that goofball would do." The others heard Zay comment through the speakers. Riley had matured a lot in the las few years, but some things would always remain the same.

"Wait? I thought she was happy about me dating Maya." Josh asked suddenly worried about how his niece was feeling.

"Oh, she is, but she has always treated Maya as more of a sister and you know how she hates changes. Well most changes anyways, I mean you guys moving here," he gestured to Farkle who nodded. "Obviously she's ecstatic about that so no need to worry about that. My point is, she's happy for you two, but she doesn't want Maya to not be her sister anymore. I'm a bit more worried about her starting to call Cory her brother-in-law. We all know that he's not going to take that all too well." The others had to agree with Lucas on that, Cory was definitely just as quirky as his daughter and no one really knew where they had him.

"Yeah, he won't have to worry about that for quite a few years though. Neither of us are actually thinking about those kinds of things. My brother was the one who got engaged early, not me."

"Yeah, besides there was that thing with the whole "I love you" mess so I suppose you would rather take things slow now, right?"

"Yeah, we're definitely not in any kind of rush."

"Could you explain that entire thing with the *I love you"? I never really understood what that was about, all I've heard about it is what Riley told Smackle who then told me about it. Safe to say I don't think I got the entire story."

"Well now that it's over the story doesn't really matter all that much, but the reason behind the mess was her father leaving her mother back when Maya was little. Now she has such a difficult time saying the word herself. I know that she loves me though, she's shown me that and that is enough for me."

"Ah, it's the same as back in middle school when she was all about being broken. I need to talk with her I think." Farkle said.

"Are you sure that that is such a good idea Farkle, I just got the woman that I love back and I really don't want to risk losing her again."

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing, or rather, Smackle know what I'm supposed to be doing."

"As usual, you have some moments where you don't make sense Farkle."

"Yeah, that's just something you have to get used to, at least if you hang out with Lucas a lot, because now that I'm back that's going to mean that you will be seeing a lot more from me." Farkle smiled. Zay was still all the way back in Texas, but he was finally starting to feel like he was back where he belonged. He definitely wasn't going anywhere.

"I don't mind that at all. You're a pretty fun guy to hang out with."

"Likewise." Farkle agreed.

"Hey, are you to being all lovey dovey or something because Daimon and Lucas are crushing us right now." Zay complained and the other two quickly turned their attention back to the game just as the game rounded its final minute.

"Damn it Daimon, couldn't you have been a little bit nicer with us? We were busy."

"Yeah, I have no idea of what that thing you were doing was, but if I find an opportunity to crush you at something I'm so going to take it."

* * *

 **Okay so I'm going to have to admit that I can't update once a week. I don't have the time for it. Finding the time for anything right now is really hard with university. I see how other people struggle with continuing their lives as they did before when they start at university.**

 **Well I told you that I wouldn't be able to update once a week, but I can guarantee that there will be one more update before friday the 22nd at least because I have something to announce that is really big for me at least so I hope that you're excited for that.**

 **And also, I've just gotten access to Microsoft Office now which means that I now have a writing program that actually corrects me on my mistakes so I'm hoping to limit the amount of writing errors I make from now on.**

 **Until next time.**


	31. Practice makes perfect

_**Practice makes perfect**_

* * *

"Hey Maya," Farkle approached Maya just as she was settling down in her favourite spot in the student lounge. "You mind if I talk with you for a little bit?"

"Not at all." Maya had no idea of what this was about, but Farkle seemed like he had something serious to discuss with her.

"I heard about the reason as to why you broke up with Josh."

"Is that all? Yeah, but that's all done with now. We fixed it so you don't have to worry about that anymore. We certainly don't."

"How long have I known you Maya?" Farkle asked her. "I know you Maya. I know that you're still thinking about this."

"I don't want to hurt him again Farkle." Maya looked around to see if there was anyone who could be listening to their conversation. When she decided that it was safe she continued, "he had it so bad because of me and I don't want him to go through all that again just because I'm not 100 percent content with what I'm bringing into this relationship. He is, that's what's the most important thing to me."

"Believe me Maya, I don't want you to break up with Josh. That's not why I came to talk with you."

"That's good, but having said that I have no idea of why you're really here then. What was it that you wanted to talk to me about?"

"I want to help you."

"Help me with what?"

"I want to help you reach the point where you can tell Josh that you love him. I want to help you get where you want to go."

"Well aren't you helpful, Sherpa boy?" Maya said smirking.

"Yeah it's been a long time since I last thought about that weekend at the ski lodge."

"I can't say it's been like that for me, I think about that weekend almost every day." It was one of the other dreams that she kept having. Although that one was without her and Josh kissing she had to admit that she did enjoy that one too. Having the guy that she'd liked for so long finally admit that he too had feelings for her was definitely one of the best moments in her life.

"I would have almost been disappointed if you didn't. That weekend changed so much for you and Josh, and for Riley and Lucas too I suppose."

"Yeah, it sure did. So, what does that have to do with my situation at the moment?"

"Nothing really, you were the one who brought it up after all."

"Do you have to be such a wisecrack?" Maya asked.

"I'm not a wisecrack, I'm a genius" Farkle answered back proudly. "Anyways, the thing that I was talking about actually relates more to Smackle than it does to me."

"Smackle? What does she have to do with this?"

"Well, if it wasn't for her then I don't think that I would have thought that this was possible."

"I'm still not following"

"Do you remember how Smackle was a few years ago? She hated hugs, now she loves them. She's not at Riley level, but then again who is?" they both laughed a bit at that, "my point is that if a girl who has been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome can end up loving hugs and be able to handle feelings as well as she does then you should be able to do anything Maya."

"Then how come I'm not able to do it, how come I can't tell him that I love him?"

"you've had it rough, that's not your fault. Josh knows this and he doesn't push you. That doesn't mean that he's given up on you saying it to him. He just knows that it can't be forced and he wants to let you get to a point in time where you're able to do it. I too know that it's going to take a lot of time. It did for Smackle, but she never gave up on it. She found something that was worth her trying to better herself even if she sometimes ended up outside of her comfort zone."

"What was that? The thing that she found?"

"Well apparently it was me, and I get the feeling that for you the thing that makes it all worth it for you is Josh. You just have to decide for yourself if you're willing to push yourself in order to get to that point."

"I am, I would do anything for him. I love that guy."

"I know you do, and the fact that you're able to say that just because you know that he isn't here makes me feel certain that you can do this."

"So, Mr. Genius, or was it Sherpa? How would you suggest that I try to do this?"

"Simple," Farkle grinned, "practice makes perfect."

* * *

 **So I said that I would update before Friday 22nd right? Does this count? I feel a little bad about going so long in between updates and leaving you hanging ike this for more than two weeks, but I know that I have to prioritize university as sad as that is.**

 **The reason why I aid that I would update before this date spesifically was so that I could make an anouncement. I have released my first novel. The book is available in e-book formt on amazon and is called _Worth the wait?_ and is my attempt at making the first part of this story something more than a fanfic. I know that for most of you you've already read this version of the story and therefore it might not be all that tempting to check it out, but for those of you who do I greatly appreciate it. The book is kind of a remastered version of what I suppose you've already read so the level of content is in my opinion a lot better.**

 **To find the book should you be interested you need only search for my name which is:Fredrik Johansen I do hope that at least some of you are interested in it.**

* * *

 **Now for all of you who are wondering when I'm going to update next, I honestly have no idea. Just know that you are a priority and I still find great joy in writing for you. Remember to give me your feedback on this chapter and about the book too (please). Until next time.**


	32. Worth the extra effort

When Maya had asked for more elaboration on his practice makes perfect theory he had simply told her that she would need to push herself and try harder. She knew that it would be the only way, but she knew that she would feel demotivated at the beginning and if she didn't see any results then the frustration would start to show whenever she spent time with Josh. She didn't want to let that happen.

"Hey Beautiful." She heard Josh say and she looked up from her cup.

"Hey." She smiled at him. As he sat down in the couch she turned to him and gave him a kiss.

"Am I interrupting you? You seemed like you were deep in thought."

"No, well I was deep in thought, but I don't think I'm going to make it any better by pondering on it."

"Oh, so what was it about? Or is it too private?" She could tell that Josh was curious, but she really appreciated the fact that he was willing to let her keep some things to herself.

"You've spoken to Farkle right?" When she saw him nod she continued, "It's about that."

"Oh, so what was his idea?" Josh had some idea of what this was about, but Farkle never actually told him what his plan was.

"Practice makes perfect, it's not going to be fixed overnight, but he thought that it would be worth it to try to fix it even if it would take some time.

"And what do you think? I'm assuming you have something you're worried about right?"

"Yeah, I think it's a good plan in principle, but what if something goes wrong?"

"Yeah, just know that I'm going to be okay either way Maya. If you're going to do this then that is for you. I will help you, but I won't force you to do something that you're not ready for for me."

"I'm not doing this for you, I'm doing this for us. I'm just worried about what trying to do this could end up doing to our relationship. If I end up frustrated all the time then you might not want to be with me all the time, I don't feel like I can take that risk."

"Okay Maya there is nothing you can do that will make me not want to be with you, just know that I will support you no matter what you decide to do okay? I love you."

"Come over here," Maya said as she pulled Josh in for another kiss, this one lasting a lot longer than the previous one.

* * *

"So Farkle told you about his idea, right?" Maya found herself alone with Smackle later that night. It had been so long since the last time she had been alone with Smackle that Maya felt sorry about the conversation topic for the night.

"Yeah, Josh told me that you were somehow involved in all of this."

"You remember how I was before I got together with Farkle, it took me so long to get used to expressing my emotions and stuff like that. I figured if anyone knew how hard it would be to go through with this then it would be me."

"So you think it's possible then? I was beginning to think that it was going to stay like this forever until Farkle told me about his plan."

"Oh, yeah you'll manage to get through this. Trust me, emotions like the ones that you're feeling are meant to be shared."

"My mom said the same thing, I'm starting to think that it might actually be true."

"Yeah, but you have to be willing to give it time okay? Do not rush it because it is going to be difficult." Smackle warned.

"I know, it tore us apart once, but I'm not going to let that happen again."

"That's good and just know that like Josh probably promised you I'm going to be there to help you, best thing is that now I'm going to be a whole lot closer than I was before."

"Yeah and I'm so happy about that, but you couldn't have found out about all of this a little bit earlier than that? I mean it's already December so you missed most of the semester."

"Sorry about that Maya. Speaking of December though, we need to talk about Christmas presents because I have no idea of what I'm going to give to Farkle."

"Same here with Josh, but I thought you knew Farkle so well. Finding a Christmas present for him should be easy with all the time that you've spent with him and with you being a genius and all."

"Same with you, well maybe not spending all that much time with him, but you've basically stalked him for years. Shouldn't you know what to give Josh for Christmas?"

"I want it to be special, I don't want to give Josh some stupid gift that anyone could get him."

"Same here, which means that we're in the same boat there."

"Why can't it be easy to give presents to your boyfriend? I basically have everyone else figured out."

"Yeah," Smackle agreed. "But I suppose that is what makes it special, and if it's for Farkle then I'm more than willing to go through a little bit of extra work for him. He's worth it."

"That might just be the smartest thing that you've said all day Smackle, and that is saying something" Maya told her. She would always be willing to go the extra mile for Josh. At that moment she decided that she would be willing to try out Farkle's plan. Sure it would be rough, but for him, no them, it would be worth it.

* * *

 **So it has been waaaaay too long since the last time I wrote a chapter for this story or really since I wrote anything at all. I could blame it on school, but really it all comes down to lazyness which really is a shame. Still, I couldn't just leave you without a chapter for Christmas right? What kind of awful human being would I be then? This is probably going to be the only chapter before Christmas, but I'm going to be forcing myself to write some more in the coming days just to get back into it. I'm hoping to come back stronger next year.**

 **So for the next few days remember to leave a review so that I can get some feedback, I know I'm a little bit rusty at this point. Also, leave a comment about what you would like as a present from your boyfriend/girlfriend. Maybe if I'm smart I'll remember to come back to this for some advice if I ever end up with a girlfriend around Christmas or her birthday.**

 **Merry Chritmas and I hope you all enjoy the holidays.**


	33. It has to start somewhere, right?

**It has to start somewhere, right?**

* * *

"So you think that he will like this?" Maya askes Smackle holding up a camera lense.

"I don't see how he wouldn't, he loves taking pictures right?" she nodded. Maya felt quite proud with herself. It was still only the 14th of December, but she was already finished with all of her Christmas presents.

"do you have any idea of what you're going to get for your significant other?"

"No, he usually loves all tech stuff, but with his dad being rich he already has most of the new stuff by the time it comes out in the stores." Smackle complained.

"How about getting him something that isn't in the major tech stores then?" Maya asked. She had an idea for something that she knew Farkle would like, but she wanted Smackle to figure it out for herself.

"Like what?"

"I don't want to have to tell you exactly, but you said it yourself. He has most new tech stuff. You're supposedly a genius so I shouldn't have to say any more than that for you to figure it out."

* * *

"So, you're telling me that Josh didn't even man up after all that?" Maya and Smackle were seated at a coffee shop and Maya was telling Smackle about the days leading up to her getting together with Josh.

"No, really. I'm not even sure where we would have been if it hadn't been for Daimon."

"Yeah, he does sound like an amazing guy."

"Yeah, Emily is incredibly lucky to have him. She's a bit shy, but that doesn't really seem to matter to Daimon all that much."

"Just remember Josh before you fangirl about Daimon too much now okay?" Smackle reminded her just as Maya's phone plinged.

"How could I even begin to forget him when he keeps on being so amazing?" Maya showed Smackle the message from Josh that she'd just gotten where he was inviting her to a movie night.

"Why don't you try that?" Smackle asked, pointing to the end of the message where Josh had written "I love you".

"Are you serious? Right off the bat you're expecting me to do that? I know that you were supposed to help me with this project, but that seems like it could be a bit much for me right now."

"I'm not expecting you to do anything right away, especially not that, but you could make it one of the smaller goals along the way. I would like to think that it could be easier to have something like that to work towards. Wouldn't you agree?"

"Sure, it might be easier to work towards something like this in the beginning, but then again if it's such a little step then will it even matter to him? Are you sure that it's going to be worth the effort that I would be putting in?"

"Of course I'm not sure about that, it's only going to be worth it if you think so yourself. Plus you're not doing this for him, you're doing it for you. Remember that okay?"

"Me and Josh agreed on that subject a after I talked to him about the project. I'm not doing it for me or for him, it's for us."

"Yeah, that's a good way to approach it, I just figured that it would be easier to do it like this than to push yourself to do something face to face straight from the get-go. It has to start somewhere right?" Smackle had a point, she had been able to paint the words, but even then it had taken her several attempts and it almost ruined her relationship with Josh, she definitely didn't want that happening again just because she wanted to rush things way too soon and ended up frustrated.

"Okay!" she decided. "I'm going to try to do this. I think Josh deserves it."

"You're half right again Maya, you both deserve this." Maya's phone plinged again. "I'm in charge of snacks, just bring your beautiful self and your most comfy set of clothes."

"He's impatient." Maya smirked. She loved the fact that she had an amazing boyfriend who was so excited even if it was just for a movie night with her. Not needing to dress up all the time was definitely a bonus too.

"He's in love, he's excused." Smackle said with a smile on her face. Before she met Farkle those words would have scared the living daylight out of her, now she was going to do her best to help one of her best friends get over her fair of love as well.

"Well so am I" Maya smiled warmly as if she knew what Smackle was thinking. "Still doesn't change the fact that I'm going to make things hard for him."

"It wouldn't be you if you didn't, he'd probably miss it if you stopped doing it as well."

"He probably would, the fool."

"Speaking of, I'm still not sure what you wanted me to get for my fool, by which I of course mean Farkle"

"Well, Farkle's no fool as you know. And I would think that seeing as you're no fool either you would have no problem with figuring out what I was hinting at. In my opinion I made it pretty obvious whit the hint that I gave you." Maya loved having moments like that where she felt like she could tease the genius. She would never take it any farther than that though.

"Maya!" Smackle complained and crossed her arms. "You're making this so much harder than it has to be!"

"Am I supposed to be sorry about that?, I was under the impression that that was my job.?"

* * *

 **I haven't stopped writing so I have a few chapters ready for you, but I want to space them out over the next few weeks and I'll try to get into a habit of releasing a chapter once a week, but I can't promise anything. As usual tell me your thoughts about the story and the chapter. Also feel free to complain at me either in PM or with a review if it takes me more than two weeks to get the next chapter out. a question for next time, which of the characters in the story do you find yourself relating to the most?**


	34. Trust me Emi

_**Trust me Emi**_

* * *

"So, you've figured out what to do about the Christmas present to Maya?" Daimon asked Josh. They were sitting in their dorm room, Daimon and Emily had been having one of their quiet moments when Josh walked in ready to do some editing on his computer. Instead of shooing him out Emily had turned around to face him with her back resting against Daimon's chest. They were still whispering quietly to each other every once in a while, but the gesture made Josh feel like he was still welcome in the room despite having walked in on a private moment.

"Yeah I've actually had it figured out since about two weeks after we got back together." Josh smiled at the thought of being able to give his gift to Maya."

"Only you would be able to finish the gift to your girlfriend more than a month before Christmas. Would you tell us about it? I'm really curious."

"Oh, I know you are, but you know what? Actually, I have several reasons not to tell you about it." Josh smirked. "Number one is that I don't trust either one of you to actually keep this a secret."

"Hey!" Daimon complained. "I can keep a secret, besides, I don't even talk to Maya all that often."

"I suppose that you're right about both of those, but then again, I told you that there were more than one reason as to why I'm keeping it a secret from you. This one for instance, is a very important one."

"And what would that be?" Daimon was growing more and more impatient with Josh who seemed all too calm. He watched as Josh closed the project on his computer and shut it off before walking towards the door.

"I don't feel like telling you." Josh said as he walked out and shut the door.

"Damn, I hate it when he does that." Daimon complained.

"You know, he only does that because of you. I don't think he would have done that before you and he became friends and he got to know you as well as he does now."

"Well, I think you're partly right, but I don't think that giving me all the blame is fair. Plenty of it is coming from Maya as well you know?"

"That is definitely true." Emily turned around to face Daimon again before leaning in to give Daimon a quick peck, but she failed to notice the way Daimon was grinning.

"There is a punishment for that you know?" Emily was still completely clueless and merely stopped a few centimetres away from Daimon's face.

"What do you mean?"

"This." Daimon said and started tickling her side. Emily had no defence from the sudden assault and merely trashed around in Daimon's arms while squealing. Emily had made a point of not sticking out as her shyness made her hate attention. The sensation was therefore completely new to her as no one had ever tickled her before. She decided immediately that she was extremely ticklish.

"Daimon! P-please, please stop!" She eventually managed to get out. The tickling tickling stopped immediately and Emiy collapsed with her head resting on Daimon's chest completely exhausted.

"Sorry about that." Daimon said while still grinning.

"No you're not."

"I guess you're right." He answered. "But you're making it making it really hard to feel bad about it with how cute you look right now so I'm having a hard time regretting it." Emily's face had already been completely red from the heavy breathing, but Daimon swore that her cheeks got even redder. "I really like it when you're like this Emi."

"You're stupid." Emily muttered into his chest.

"Yeah right, you love it almost as much as I love you." Daimon tilted her head up and gave her a kiss.

"Yeah, you're right." Emily answered back as the kiss ended. "So you still have no clue what to get me for Christmas?"

"No, I do still have more than a week to figure it out though right?"

"Just barely more than a week I would say, I'm going back to my parents the 23rd" Emily reminded him. "And I was kind of hoping that we could exchange gifts the night before I leave?"

"I'll be sure to have it all figured out by then. And you? You're finished?"

"I have an idea. I haven't completely landed on it, but I do have a general idea of what to get you so don't worry about it."

"Well that's okay, I'm just happy that for once I'm not that far behind you when it comes to planning."

"For once? What do you mean?" Emily asked.

"I mean, you always seem like have it all figured out. I guess I just feel sort of jealous of how well put together you are. Makes it even more incredible that you're my girlfriend."

"Are you serious? I don't feel like that at all."

"Well yeah, I mean you always have these plans figured out ages in advance. For instance, I'm pretty sure that you already know what you want to do with your life while I have no idea."

"Well that's true, but come on you know I'm trying to become a writer so that one was obvious. You don't have to sell yourself short though. I mean, I don't have your ability to just wing it like you always do. I admire that about you. It makes you seem confident."

"I'm glad that I manage to come across as confident, I guess that I just feel calmer around you."

"I know what you mean, I feel completely relaxed around you."

"Except for when you get tickled?" Daimon asked with a smirk.

"Yeah, so don't you dare." Emily poked his chest with her finger while doing her best to make a stern face."

"Trust me Emi, you're safe. For now."

* * *

 **I almost manged it within two weeks, but not quite. Still I'd like to think that it's a lot better than two or three months right? I checked my story and apparently it has humor as one of its categories so I'll try to use some of that in the chapters to come. I hope to get back to you with a new chapter sometime next week when I'm back on my main computer with keyboard that works properly. This story is closing in on 350 reviews which is more than twice the amount that all of my other stories have so I'm hoping to reach that if not on this chapter then at least on the next one. As usual leave your thoughts on the chapter and your speculations for the chapters to come. Hope you enjoyed.**


	35. The 22nd of December

_The 22_ _nd_ _of December_

The week leading up to the 22nd went by quickly and Daimon eventually ended up getting Emily a gift that he felt confident that she would like. He had the entire evening planned out, but he first had to figure out how to get Josh his gift. He didn't want Josh to feel like he had to get him something back, so he wanted Josh to find it when he got to his brother's apartment. He eventually decided that he would just give it to Maya for her to smuggle it under the tree for him and to make sure that Josh found it. She had however argued quite a lot, complaining about how it was too much work.

After he eventually managed to convince her to take it, he had a look at his watch and realized just how little time he had to finish his plan for his gift to Emily. He had somehow managed to get a hold of the spare key to Emily's dorm room, so he had the idea to set up his gift before Emily got back from her shopping trip with Riley. With both Maya and Smackle having finished their gift shopping a long time ago, Emily ended up being roped into going shopping with her. Daimon ran back to his own room and picked up the two boxes before running over to his girlfriend's room.

"So Riley was panicking like usual?" Daimon had spent two minutes trying to calm down after setting everything up in the student lounge before he got a call from Emily asking him to come over.

"Yes, I'm sure that Maya and Smackle would have made up some kind of excuse even if they hadn't been done with their gifts just to get out of helping her."

"So, what did she end up buying?"

"She told me not to say. It's ridiculous really, but she was afraid that you would tell Lucas."

"Okay, I can live with that. Now for the more important question, do you have any idea of what you've gotten from me?"

"What do you mean gotten? Isn't it what I'm going to get?"

"Not quite, see, you've already gotten your gift from me, but it seems like you haven't noticed yet."

"I don't understand what's going on here, is it here?" Daimon nodded and smiled at her. "In this room?" Daimon nodded again and Emily jumped up from his lap to search the room. When she started opening up her wardrobe to check if Daimon had hidden her gift there, he started laughing.

"It's not hidden Emi. It's in plain sight, but it's not wrapped up."

"Give me a hint then?" Emily pleaded.

"Think about what you would usually do when you come back to your dorm room after you're done with studying for the day."

"I would probably just leave my backpack her and then go to find you, but that's not what you mean right?"

"No, and it's so simple. Just think about what you usually do when you're here alone."

"Well I either write on my desk which I've now checked or I re- Oh My God! Daimon!" Emily walked over to her bookshelf where she knelt down, "how much did this cost you?" she asked, turning to Daimon. In the center of the bookshelf stood five books. They had a bookend on each end which kept them standing, The bookends were made of hardwood and resembled a book halfway open. Her book. The series in the middle was called Percy Jackson and it was a series that she had recently read in e-book format, but she really wanted it in paper format as well.

"Do you like them?"

"Are you kidding?" Emily walked back to the bed and settled back in his lap before she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him in for a kiss. "Yes, yes I do. So how much did it cost you?" she prodded.

"Not a fraction of what you're worth."

"Okay, so skipping that, I have your gift here." Emily said and handed Daimon the gift that had been sitting on her nightstand. "It's nowhere near as thoughtful as your gift, but hopefully you'll still appreciate it nonetheless."

"I know I will, it's from you so how could I not?" Daimon gently unwrapped the box that he'd gotten. "Are you serious Emily? You didn't have to get me something like this."

"I didn't want to get you something that you could have just gotten for yourself. I knew that you wanted something like this, but that since it's so expensive and you didn't need it that you felt like you couldn't spend that kind of money on it."

"And you thought that it was better that you spent the money?"

"I've always thought that gifts should be something that the person wants but wouldn't buy for themselves. So, do you like it?" Daimon opened the box and took out a headset,

"I really like it Emi, it's a good philosophy for a gift as well. I love you."

"I love you too." When Daimon just looked at her stunned, she giggled. "Just because I won't say it all that often doesn't mean that I don't mean it. I don't have a block on that subject like Maya does so I do feel like I should say it every once in a while. Was it okay that that was the first time?" Daimon pulled her closer for another kiss.

"Are you kidding me? Of course that was okay! This has been the best Christmas ever! And it hasn't even started properly. Being away from you over Christmas is going to be so hard."

"Yeah, Maya and the others have it easy."

"Well, apparently Lucas was going back to Texas to celebrate with Zay, and his grandfather, along with the rest of his family. That means that there are at least two people in the same boat as us."

"It is a pretty good boat to be in though right?" Emily asked, smiling at Daimon.

"Yeah it is, the best." He answered and puller her closer again.

* * *

 **Well that's two weeks in a row with updates I think. This means that I'm at least getting slightly better right? Someone asked for more Joshaya in the last chapter and to that person I can happily announce that there will be an overload of them in the chapters to come. Now for something else.**

 **I have started a P. atreon. No it is not for my fanfictions, those will always be available for free considering that I don't feel like breaking any copyright laws in the near future. The will be for my original works, I have a couple of stories that i ahve several chapters already written out so at least in the beginning chapters will be coming out rather rapidly. As I said before, this is not related to my fanfictions, although I do have the same username over there. This means that you should only donate or pledge if you're actually interested in my original works. I'd like to think that if you like my style of writing then you might end up liking those stories as well. Please give it a shot if you think that you might be interested. This is me trying to take the first few steps on the road towards actually getting paid as a writer.**

 **Now back to your regularly scheduled segment consisting of me begging you for reviews, as always feel free to come with criticism as well a as theories. I love to hear what you guys think will happen further down the story.**


	36. The 23rd of December

**_The 23_ _rd_ _of December_**

* * *

"My first Christmas with you as my girlfriend, this is great." Josh said and smiled at Maya. It was the 23rd of December and they were cuddled up in Maya's bed in Shawn and Katy's apartment. Josh was staying with his brother for the holidays, but that didn't stop him from sneaking over to Maya's only a few hours after he got there.

"You've said that twice already, it there something going on that I should know of?"

"Not really, I'm just a little bit nervous, and that mixed with excitement has me going a little bit crazy. I mean between my brother and your stepdad, there's a lot of protectiveness when it comes to you."

"I'm not sure that you can blame all the craziness on nerves though. Besides, it's more like overprotectiveness which is redundant at this point considering that my dad helped us get back together. It's just an act at this point. If you're really that nervous about it then I have something that might help take your mind off of things."

"I thought we were doing gifts on Christmas day?"

"It's actually not from me, it's from Daimon. He didn't want to give it to you at the dorm because he didn't want you to feel like you had to give him something back. It's driving me crazy with curiosity so I want you to open it now, would you please?"

"Damn it, he should have told."

"come on Josh, he said that it was nothing big so don't worry about it." Maya went over to her backpack and took out an envelope that she handed to Josh.

"Oh," Josh opened the envelope and found a flash drive with a note attached to it.

"What does it say?" Maya asked.

"Apparently that flash drive contains pictures of us. He gave them to me as editing material."

"That's a really good gift."

"Yeah it is, I'm just kind of surprised that he managed to photograph us without us noticing. And I definitely feel like I should have gotten him a gift back after getting this from him."

"Really? You're surprised about that? With how easily I lose myself in my painting and you in your photographing, we were always going to lose track of our surroundings when we were together."

"When did you become Farkle?"

"Farkle Really? That's an insult if I've ever heard one."

"Actually, it was meant as a compliment." Josh scratched his head nervously.

"Well," Maya started as she heard someone knocking on her window. "You're going to have to work on on your compliments then." She opened the window to allow Riley to climb in.

"It's freezing outside." Riley complained.

"My parents live that close to yours, yet you still managed to get cold on the way here? How?"

"I may have stayed outside to watch for a little bit."

"You know that doesn't do you any good niece."

"But I miss Lucas, so I thought that it would be nice to watch you for a little bit."

"And what did that get you?"

"It got me cold, and it got me bored!" she complained.

"Yeah, maybe now you've learned?"

"So, what were you talking about?"

"Really? You didn't even hear what we were talking about, yet you still stayed outside to watch? I thought you hated silent movies?"

"I do, let's just say, I won't be doing that again any time soon, and definitely not during winter."

"Well, apparently your uncle thinks that calling me Farkle is a compliment. Not sure where he gets that from."

"Boo Josh!"

"It was meant in the sense that she'd gotten so smart all of a sudden. Lookswise you and Farkle have nothing in common."

"You should have specified then."

"It shouldn't have been necessary to specify what I meant," Josh argued. "Being smart is kind of what defines Farkle."

"That's where you're wrong Josh, being Farkle is what defines Farkle."

"What's that even supposed to mean?" instead of answering, Maya and Riley merely burst into a fit of giggles. Josh gave up and merely enjoyed watching Maya joke around with riley for a few minutes before Josh's phone pinged.

"What's going on?" Maya asked.

"Apparently my dad's over at Cory's and he asked if he could see me. Something about not having seen him or my mother for four months."

"Did grandpa want me over as well?"

"He did, but he also said he didn't need to pull you two apart quite as badly as me and Maya."

"It sounds like he wants to break us up, should I be worried?" Maya asked.

"It's not that, he's just being protective."

"Of you? I'd never hurt you. He doesn't have to worry about that."

"It's not me he's worried about." Josh said as he started to climb out the window. "See you tomorrow Beautiful, I love you."

"Hold on for a second Josh," Maya said and walked over to him. "Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow." she said and pulled him in for a quick kiss before Josh climbed out the window.

* * *

On the way back to Cory's Josh pulled out his phone and sent a text to Daimon.

'Thanks for the gift, it was perfect really. I'm going to have to do something special for your birthday then.'

'Glad you liked it, but you don't have to get me something back. They're just pictures I ended up taking because I thought you looked so happy and I figured you'd want a memory of it.'

' I know I don't have to get you something back, but I want to. Merry Christmas. See you after new years.'

'you too.' Came the reply from Daimon and Josh put his phone back in his pocket and hurried the rest of the way over to the apartment.

* * *

 **I messed up a bit last week, but I'll try to keep up the at least decent frequency of updates. I do have some news though: It doesn't look like I'm going to be getting a summer job this year and if that ends up being the case then I'm making a real attempt at writing during those two months. This means that I'm going to focus on all my works over the summer and at least get in 6 hours of writing a day. This should result in me finishing several of my bigger projects as well as getting out several chapters of this story.**

 **Let me know what you thought of this chapter as well as the announcement at the end. Going to try to keep up a somewhat decent update pace even during my exam period in an attempt to get back the amount of readers that I had a year ago. See you next week, hopefully.**


	37. The 24th of December

**_The 24_ _th_ _of December_**

* * *

Maya awoke to find a text from Josh asking her if she wanted to meet up with Josh. Her immediate thought was to reply yes to the offer, but as she stared at the three words written at the end of the text she decided she wanted to do something special, something potentially crazy. She called Smackle before she could second guess herself.

"Hello?" came the sleepy reply from the other end of the phone, Smackle was definitely not a morning person and had it been any other situation Maya would have felt bad for waking her up early.

"I'm doing it!" Maya almost shouted into her phone.

"What? Oh Maya, wait, what are you doing?" Smackle asked trying to put the pieces together something that took her quite a bit longer in her still half asleep state.

"I'm sending the message to him!" Maya explained while still doing her best to calm herself down.

"What? Seriously? That's great Maya!" apparently that was all the time that Smackle needed to wake up fully and now, she was almost as excited as Maya. "That's an incredible first step Maya."

"I feel like I can do it now. And if I don't do it now that I'm feeling like this then I don't think that it's ever going to happen."

"Go for it Maya, I'm gonna hang up now so that you don't have time to second guess yourself. Oh and Maya, merry Christmas."

"Thank you so much Smackle, merry Christmas to you too." Maya said before Smackle hung up. Maya typed out the message in a matter of seconds and was about to hit send out of habit when she paused. "are you really going to chicken out now? She asked herself before she took one last look and typed in the last three words. "Hell no!" with one push she sent the message.

"Riley!?" Riley heard someone shouting her name. "Riley? Did you take Maya's phone last night?"

"Josh?" Riley rubbed her eyes in an attempt to up. "What are you talking about?"

"Just answer the question and I'll let you go back to your Lucas dream."

"Lucas dream? How do you know that's what I was dreaming about?"

"You have drool on your cheek, so I took a guess. Now answer the question!"

"You're going to have to repeat the question though seeing as I was asleep for about half of it."

"Did you or did you not take Maya's phone yesterday?"

"I did not, why?"

"Not important." Josh shrugged and turned to walk out the door.

"Wait, Josh! It seemed pretty important with how you had to wake me up just to ask me about it."

"Well I'm sure that Maya will tell you all about it sooner or later. I don't want to ruin the surprise for you."

"Are you sure?" Riley tried to ask him again, but he was already out the door. "Stupid uncle," Riley mumbled and turned around to go back to sleep. "I was having such a good dream too."

Josh read and reread the message so many times in the hour leading up to his meetup with Maya that he was certain he was going crazy, but he didn't care, It could have been the only thing that he got for Christmas that year and he would have still been happy. He knew that sending him that text message was a major step, a major accomplishment for her. He didn't want to pressure her to do anything else, to push her farther than she was willing to go on her own, but he really wanted her to know how much he appreciated the effort that she put in.

Josh was grateful that Topanga's was open, even on Christmas eve, even if it was only until the early afternoon. He was even more grateful that neither his sister-in-law nor Katy was working there that day. He made sure to get all of Maya's favorite sweets and their usual table ready by the time that she walked through the door.

"Hey Beautiful," he greeted her and gave her a quick kiss before allowing her to settle doen in the couch.

"What's up with buying all my favorite things from the shop? Anything special we're celebrating?" Josh had been silent on his phone ever since she sent the message, so Maya had briefly wondered if perhaps he hadn't noticed anything special about it.

"Well technically it is Christmas, but that's not what we're celebrating right now. You really thought I wouldn't notice it? Seriously, I'm wounded," Josh faked hurt.

"I realized that that was what it was about. So, did you like it?"

"I did, it was the best thing I've seen in a long time, well…." He took a long look at her as if taking her in. "Second best thing I mean."

"Flattery will get you nowhere Josh. So you really liked it? It was just a little thing to show you that I am working on being able to express my feelings."

"Maya, honestly, it made my day. I couldn't be any happier, I just don't want you to feel like I'm forcing you or pushing you to do anything that you don't want to."

"I don't feel like that at all I'm just happy that you appreciated it."

"It's so much more than that, so much more"

"Why don't you try to show me then?" Maya asked while leaning closer to Josh.

"I could do that, but are you sure that you don't want to eat first?"

"That can wait, I found something that I want more." Maya smiled at him.

"In that case, I'd be happy to help." Josh tilted her chin up and gave her a long kiss.

"So, date went well?" Riley had finished getting ready and to escape her stressed out mother she had fled over the hall to Shawn and Katy's apartment.

"It was great, he bought me all my favorite sweets."

"Were you celebrating anything? Josh was going kind of crazy about something this morning. He said you would probably want to tell me about it yourself."

"So he was that stressed out about it? He seemed pretty calm about it when I met him at Topanga's." Maya looked pretty pleased with herself. "I took the first step towards being able to tell Josh that I love him."

"Maya? That's incredible!" What did you do?"

"I put it into a text message."

"That explains it, Josh woke me up this morning to ask me if I had your phone. So how did you come up with that idea then?"

"You would never take my phone, I bit you the last time you tried. Smackle gave me the idea to put it into a text, it's kind of similar to the painting."

"Yeah, you bit me the last time you noticed me trying to take your phone yes, but how about if I were to steal It from you without you noticing?"

"Yeah, you and your clumsy hands? Good luck with that."

"That's true, but apparently my uncle wasn't that far off when he called you Farkle last night. I'm pretty sure that he's also taking a lot of advices from Smackle these days.

"You take that back Riley!" Maya complained.

"No!" Riley crossed her arms. "So, excited for your gift from Josh?" Riley asked.

"Yeah, I can't wait for tonight."

* * *

 **So my exams kicked my uploading plans' butt which is why i've been silent for wat too long, but I have my last exam the 30th of May so after that it's writing full time for a couple of weeks at least (I hope). Let me know if you liked the chapter and also what you think Josh's gift for Maya is. I don't want to spoil it, but I also don't want to have to wait two weeks to show you what I have planned. Quite the dilemma, I know. Well, until I figure out how to handle the dilemma, see ya.**


	38. A dream with missing pieces

**_A Dream with missing pieces_**

* * *

After a successful dinner at the Matthews, Josh, Riley and Maya had retreated to Riley's old bay window. Maya couldn't even remember the last time that they'd used it. It still held that familiar feeling of home to her, but as she looked down at her hand that was intertwined with Josh's she felt as if something had shifted. She'd always felt like this was a place that was meant for solving problems, but now it felt just as right to be here with Josh, completely content.

"So, I hope that mom didn't drive you too crazy this year?" Riley asked. While everyone else had been focused on simply enjoying the meal and the company that they were in, Topanga had been running circles around herself trying making sure that everything was right.

"Nah, just the average amount as usual. I think she was actually less freaked out than usual now that my mother wasn't here. Honestly Riley, it was great, but I think we're always going to end up tired after dinner on Christmas eve.

"Yeah, you're probably right. Speaking of, shouldn't you two get going over to Maya's for the presents before you get too tired to do it tonight?"

"We're not in any kind of rush right?" Maya asked Josh who nodded in reply, "Have you opened up your gift from Lucas yet?"

"No, I kind of wanted to call him and open it with him on facetime."

"Oh, so that's what this is about? We'll give you and your boytoy time to open your gifts together then." Maya assured Riley.

"I'm sure that he's opened his gift already Maya."

"You two are so alike that there is no way that he didn't have the same idea, he's probably just waiting for you to call him."

"You're probably right. Make sure to give me all the details tomorrow morning then, okay Maya?"

"Likewise" Maya answered back and stood up dragging Josh with her out the door.

* * *

"Okay then, let me go first then." Maya said as she opened her bedside drawer and took out the gift that had been perfectly wrapped up. "Here's your gift Josh."

"Hm, it feels heavy. Should I be able to guess what it is?"

"Maybe, but I'm hoping that you'll end up at least a little bit surprised. Half the fun is gone if you know what it is before you open it right?"

"I agree, and since I do I suppose I'll have to open it before I start guessing what it is." Josh said and started unwrapping the gift. "Wow" he said as the wrappings came off and he realized what it was. "Thank you so much Maya, this is great."

"Shawn told me that you needed one of these, but that you were hesitant to put that much money into your photographing. I figured I'd do it for you."

"Thank you Maya, you're the best, I love you." He said and pulled her in closer to give her a kiss.

"Are you ready for your Christmas present Maya?" Josh asked. Maya didn't think that she could be any happier than she was in that moment, she didn't need a present when she had him.

"Josh, you didn't have to get me a present, just being able to spend Christmas with you is good enough for me." Maya insisted, but Josh held up a hand to silence her.

"Now I could choose to believe that, but that would make the lousiest boyfriend in the world wouldn't it?"

"Not really, in my eyes you're still the best guy I could ever ask for."

"I know that you feel that way and believe me that makes me really happy, but I really like making you happy so I felt like giving you this." Josh handed her a small box and Maya eagerly opened it. Inside she found a charm bracelet. The bracelet had two charms already added on to it. One said Josh and the other was a paint brush.

"How did you get this?" Maya asked as she looked from the charm bracelet over to Josh.

"Is there something wrong?" Josh asked, he'd hoped that she would be happy with his gift, but he wasn't sure what the shocked and slightly panicked expression that she had meant. The last time that he'd seen here like this they'd broken up.

"Just answer the question Josh. Please, just answer it." Josh could hear the desperation in her voice. Something was really wrong.

"You remember after the ski lodge trip where we made the promise to wait? We started hanging out a lot more and one day we walked by a jewelry store where something caught your eye. It didn't have these two charms on it, but I figured it should be okay for me to add them. Anyway, I bought this after we got back together." Josh finished explaining and took her free hand. "Now could you please tell me what's wrong?"

"I had a dream, about this very moment. You gave me that exact bracelet, with those two charms. I don't know how I dreamed about that, I think that I somehow remembered the bracelet, although I didn't realize it until now. I just don't see how I dreamed about those two charms."

"That's actually crazy, but I still don't see why you freaked out. Was there anything else that happened in the dream?"

"Yeah, you remember the text from earlier today?"

"Of course I do, why?"

"In my dream _I_ took it a step further. Just now, when I opened up the gift, I realized that I'm still not ready to do that."

"Oh, Maya I'm so sorry if it felt like I pushed you just now. I didn't realize that the gift would make you feel like that."

"It's not your fault, you couldn't have known Josh. Seriously, that dream is one of the best I've ever had and I just hope that the day comes when I'll be able to fill in the missing pieces."

"You're sure that you're okay with this Maya?"

"Are you kidding me?" Maya said as she put the box with the bracelet in on her nightstand. "This is the best Christmas I've ever had Josh. Now come over here." Maya told him as she grabbed him and pulled him in for a long kiss.

* * *

 **Well, my exams are done so now I'm visiting my parents for a few weeks. I'm hoping to eventually find a good routine for writing that I'm able to keep while I'm here. I figured that I had to at least get this one out to you seeing as you've waited for far too long. I was kind of surprised that none of you managed to guess what Josh's gift was, but then again that means that the hint that I initially put in about 15 chapters ago was subtle enough for you all to forget. I have plans for that bracelet in the future.**

 **Now for a question, What was the chapter that was best named in your opinion?**

 **See you next week I hope.**


	39. He'll know what it means

**_He'll know what it means_**

* * *

 _"Are you ready for your Christmas present Maya?" Josh asked. Maya didn't think that she could be any happier than she was in that moment, she didn't need a present when she had him._

 _"Josh, you didn't have to get me a present, just being able to spend Christmas with you is good enough for me." Maya insisted, but Josh held up a hand to silence her._

 _"Now I could choose to believe that, but that would make the lousiest boyfriend in the world wouldn't it?"_

 _"Not really, in my eyes you're still the best guy I could ever ask for."_

" _I know that you feel that way and believe me that makes me really happy, but I really like making you happy so I felt like giving you this." Josh handed her a small box and Maya eagerly opened it. Inside she found a charm bracelet. The bracelet had two charms already added on to it. One said Josh and the other was a paint brush._

" _I love it Josh." Maya said and leaned forward to kiss him. "This must have cost you a fortune though, you didn't have to do this you know?"_

" _I wanted to Maya, I love you." Josh smiled at her and leaned in for another sweet kiss._

" _I love you too." Maya said as they broke the kiss. Josh pulled her towards him and helped her so that she was sitting in his lap with her arms wrapped around his neck. As she leaned forward to rest her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes she knew that she could fall asleep right then and there. As the darkness welcomed her she knew that she would never want to leave that place, everything felt so perfect._

* * *

This time there was no Riley to wake Maya up, yet she still found herself opening her eyes at the most peaceful moment of the dream. It had been a long time since the last time Maya had that dream, but as she looked at her nightstand, she knew why she had it that night. The bracelet was still in the open box and Maya was determined to leave it there. She wasn't going to wear it, she wasn't even going to attempt it that day, but she also knew that she would never allow that bracelet to ruin her and Josh's relationship. Sure she had some stuff to work out, but she also knew that she was getting there slowly but surely. She took a look at her phone and found that it read 7:30. A few years ago this would have been the time that she and Katy went over to the Matthews' apartment because Auggie would make sure that everyone there woke up bright and early so that he wouldn't have to wait so long to open his presents. Now, he usually enjoyed sleeping in a bit later on weekends and Maya figured that this would probably be the same for Christmas day as well. Knowing that she at least had an hour to kill she found her headset and her favorite playlist on Spotify and pressed play. She felt completely rested so she knew that she wouldn't fall asleep again, however she also didn't want to get out of bed quite yet.

* * *

Just as the fifth song started playing Maya's phone started ringing. Mildly surprised she pressed a button on her headset to answer the call.

"How did it go?"

"Smackle?" Maya asked confused.

"Did I wake you? It was kind of my goal to wake you."

"You didn't, sorry. I've been awake for about 15 minutes or so. I'm sorry that I woke you up yesterday"

"It's fine really. Besides, I called more out of curiosity. How did it go with the message?"

"Oh that, it went great!"

"Really? That's awesome! So how did Josh react?"

"He kind of bought me everything on the menu at Topanga's"

"I'd say it's pretty safe to say that he enjoyed it as well then?"

"Yeah, he did. I'm really happy that I did it."

"So, how did he like the camera lens?"

"he liked it a lot, but of course he argued that I shouldn't be spending that much money on a gift for him. He got me a charm bracelet by the way and I reacted by freaking out on him."

"Why would you do that? Wasn't that a nice gift? I don't see why you felt like you needed to freak out on him because of that."

"Well it's kind of complicated, but once in a while I have these really nice dreams of me and Josh, one of the was me and him doing our gift exchange on Christmas eve. So that's great and all, but he somehow ended up getting me the exact gift that I was dreaming of. Apparently I saw it while walking around with him a few years ago and he still remembered."

"I'd have thought that that was cute and not a reason for you to freak out on him? Was there something else in the dream?"

"Yeah, in the dream I told Josh that I loved him. You know I'm not ready to do that face to face with him yet so when I opened the gift and realized that it was kind of like a punch in the gut. The dream was so perfect, but I'm not ready to have that in real life yet."

"I get your problem, but you are going to be ready one day Maya. Don't worry about it. I was like that with Farkle as well and look at us now."

"I know, so speaking of Farkle, what did you end up getting him? Did you finally figure out what I was hinting at?"

"I bought him an old computer for him to fix, he's been wanting to do that for years. Thanks for the hint Maya, and thanks for forcing me to come up with something on my own."

"No problem, so what did Farkle get you?"

"He bought me a book on how to learn elvish."

"Elvish? Is that a language?"

"Well it is kind of a language, Tolkien made it up when he was writing his books about middle-earth. He wanted us to have a way to communicate with each other without anyone else being able to listen."

"That's kind of sweet, and very much like Farkle. I just hope that it was something that you were actually interested in."

"Yeah, I didn't see it coming, but it was thoughtful and actually pretty cool. So what are you going to do about the bracelet? I'm assuming you're not wearing it right?"

"No, I'm going to leave it be for now. I'm hoping to one day be able to wear it without it feeling completely wrong. When I do, he'll know what it means.

* * *

 **Okay, I'm terrible. I meant to manage to update this before I went to camp and instead it took me a week after I got back. I hope that I'll be able to update regularly now as I'm back home where I have controll of my own scedule.**

 **Tell me your thoughts of the chapter and I'll do my best to update soon.**


	40. If something beautiful ever happens

**_If something beautiful happens, paint me a picture_**

* * *

Just as Maya was about to dose off again with the music still in her ear she heard her phone pling. She picked it up to find a message from Josh telling her that the rest of the Matthews had woken up and that her family could come over when they woke up.

'I've been up for a few hours now and I'm pretty sure that my parents are up as well, so we'll be over there in half an hour top. I love you.' Maya typed out the message and hit send. Only then did she stop and look at it. Counting the good night message that she'd sent to Josh last night, this was the third time she'd sent the I love you at the end of her text. Despite the short time though, it now felt completely natural to her. If everything else was going to come as naturally to her then she couldn't wait for the next step.

She got dressed in her regular every day clothes because there was no way she was going to walk over to the Matthews early on Christmas day while still in her pajamas. When she was done with her morning routine she went to check if her parents were indeed up. Both Shawn and Katy were about halfway through their coffee, clearly Shawn had gotten a text from Cory as well telling him that the Matthews were up. Maya only hoped that it wasn't as mushy as the one that Maya got from Josh.

"You changed clothes?" Shawn asked.

"Yeah, just because your boyfriend doesn't care what your dress like it doesn't mean that I don't want to look decent for my own." Maya teased

"You thought you were clever now?" Shawn asked with an amused look.

"Yeah, you're not as fun to tease as Cory is though. He reacts a lot more."

"I chalk that up to me being a lot cooler than he is."

"I'm sure you are." Maya said and left to find her jacket and shoes.

"Hey, I know you didn't mean that, but I really am!" she heard Shawn calling after her.

* * *

"Hey, second family!" Maya almost shouted as she opened the door to the Matthews' apartment.

"Good morning Maya," Josh's dad greeted her.

"Hey Mr. Matthews." Maya answered as she hung up her jacket,

"Josh looked very happy when he came back here last night, I hope you had a good time as well?" Maya remembered Josh telling her that it wasn't him that Alan was protective over, it was apparently her.

"yes, we both had a great time." Maya told him with a smile that couldn't quite hide the nervousness that she was beginning to feel.

"that's enough of an interrogation dad, Maya has presents to open as well." Josh put his hand Maya's shoulder and Maya instantly relaxed. She spun around and wrapped her arms around him.

"Good morning Beautiful," Josh said and returned the hug.

"Good morning." Maya said so low that she was sure that only Josh heard her,

"Maya!" She heard Riley shout from behind her. She released Josh and ran over to hug her best friend.

"Merry Christmas Riley."

"Merry Christmas, Maya, are you ready to open your most important gift?" Maya chuckled because everyone in the room knew that the gift that she was most interested in had been opened yesterday. At least she hoped that Riley knew that that was the gift that was most important to her.

"Sure I am." Maya said and turned to the pile around the Christmas tree where Auggie was already digging in. As she approached the tree Auggie merely turned around and mutely gave her a present that she knew was from Riley before turning back to the pile again. Maya took of the wrappings to find a new sketchbook. Maya went through her sketchbooks so fast that she was always in need of new ones, this one though appeared to be different from the type that she usually used. Each of the pages were easy to take out from the book with holes so that they could be put back in at any time.

"I figured you might want to start saving your drawings in one place, so I thought I'd give you a book like that along with a binder. Here." Riley handed her a leather binder.

"Thank you so much Riley." Maya wrapped her arms around Riley to give her another hug.

"No problem, I just wish that I'd given you something like this years ago so that we didn't have to have the stack of sketchbooks in our dorm room."

"Sorry about that, but you knew what you were getting into when you decided to live with me."

"That's true, but now that you've opened my gift to you it's my turn to open your gift to me. Auggie?" barely even turning around Auggie handed Riley the carefully wrapped up present that Maya recognized as her own gift.

"Oh, these are beautiful Maya." Riley said as she opened the box to find a set of clothes that she knew Lucas would like. She wasn't quite sure if the cowboy hat was taking it a bit far, but all in all she loved the Texas styled outfit. Well maybe Texas wasn't quite right, but Maya had chosen clothes similar to the outfit that Riley had worn when they went to Texas three years ago.

"Hey Cory, I have a gift for you as well." Maya said holding out her hand to Auggie who had managed to find that gift as well.

"Is this something that I should be afraid to open or something?" Cory asked as he accepted the gift.

"Nope, this is a 100 percent genuine gift. Something to thank you for what you did for me back in middle school. Now, I'm not going to let you open it out here, instead, you're going to come with me to the bay window." Maya said grabbing his hand.

* * *

"Now then, you've got me alone with you here in Riley's old room. Can I open the gift now?"

"Yes, yes you can." Maya said with a smile. Cory unwrapped the present to find a folder which he again opened.

"I'm sorry that I'm delivering this a little late Mr. Matthews, I know that it was due a few years ago." Inside the folder were a bunch of drawings and pictures. The very first one was of a man and a girl in a library. The man was handing the girl what Cory recognized as a set of color pencils.

" _You're giving me a phone?" Maya asked._

" _My motives are completely selfish." Cory said trying to play innocent._

" _You know what Mr. Matthews? I'm not sure they are."_

" _Well I also got you these" he said and handed her a box._

" _Color pencils?"_

" _Yeah, you let me know everything that's going on with Riley and if something beautiful ever happens, paint me a picture."_

* * *

 **Okay, now I'm really not all that happy about how most of this chapter turned out, so what did I do to fix that? I went to my favorite episode of the entire series for some much needed inspiration. Now for a something I've been wondering about for about 40 minutes (I know what you're thinking, that's a long time to be curious about something): What's you favorite episode of the show.**


	41. The second chance at forgiveness

_**The second chance at forgiveness**_

* * *

" _I'm sorry, I failed. I know you wanted me to forgive him, but I didn't, I couldn't do it. You're wrong about this Mr. Matthews."_

" _I never expected that man. That kind of forgiveness, it doesn't come so easily. But life is a long time and I hope you get there someday, but that's never what I was looking for right now."_

" _What did you want from me?"_

" _Maya, did you forgive yourself?"_

* * *

When Maya gave Cory his gift from her she thought that it would be the last time that they spoke in private that day, but after a day of just enjoying the presents and relaxing together with Josh and Riley, Cory had asked Maya to join him in private once more. Leaving Josh and Riley back in Riley's bay window, Maya followed Cory to his and Topanga's bedroom.

"Okay, so I'm guessing that I'm one of the few adults who haven't talked to you about you and Josh?" Maya nodded, unsure of where Cory was going with this. "Well, let's start off with this: I'm really happy for you two. Now I heard you had some problems a while ago right?" Maya nodded again.

"Yeah, we kind of broke up for a while."

"I heard, I also know the reason. That's part of the reason why I wanted to talk with you."

"How do you know about that?" When Maya finished high school and she realized that Cory wasn't going to be her teacher anymore she figured that he wouldn't know what was going on in her life anymore.

"Let's see, I'm Shawn's best friend, I'm Josh's older brother and I'm your best friend's father. This means that I also know what you're trying to accomplish as well."

"So, do you think I can do it?"

"Of course I do, I'm always going to believe that you can accomplish anything that you set your mind on. I've seen you accomplish so much that there is no way that you won't be able to do this as well. Having said that, it's not going to be easy. That's why I'm here to talk to you."

"What do you mean?"

"Do you remember the forgiveness project that I gave you all a long time ago?"

"Of course I do, I failed that assignment."

"Well here's your chance at a second try. I'm hoping that everything will go smoothly for you, but on the off chance that you fall somewhere down the road I want you to be able to forgive yourself. Do you think that you can do that?"

"I really don't know yet. I know that I want to do this, but I also know that there isn't going to be a quick fix. We both agreed that we weren't going to let this get between us."

"That's a good place to start, but Maya you have to remember something as well, you struggling with this is not your fault. You haven't had the easiest path to get to where you are today and stuff like that is bound to leave an impact of some sort. Now this is not me trying to get you to forget about this or anything like that. I just want you to be prepared in case it gets too rough and you feel like you've failed. The first step to making things right after you've failed is to acknowledge that you've actually failed, the second one and that one is just as important. You must be able to forgive yourself. From there on you can do whatever you want. People fail and fall down all the time, some try again, some try to find other ways. I'm not saying that any of those are wrong. You just have to find the way that suits you the best."

"Thank you, I'll try to remember that if I ever find myself in a situation like that. Now can I ask you something?"

"Of course you can Maya."

"Are you really okay with me dating your little brother?"

"I will say that it's certainly been quite weird for me to adjust, but yes I definitely am. I can also honestly say that I've never seen him happier than he is now. I'm a lot older than what a normal older brother would have been in this situation so I can look at it a bit differently than what would be normal. I once told Josh that one day he might meet a woman as wonderful as Topanga. I can honestly say to you that he believes you're that woman, and so do I"

* * *

"So did he too try to protect you from me?" Josh asked as Maya got back to Riley's room.

"No, and actually just like this I think that I'm going to be keeping what we spoke about during that conversation just between me and him."

"You can't do that!" Riley complained. "Me wants to know!"

"I'm sorry Riley, but sometimes you have to be able go without knowing. This is only between me and your father. That means that you won't get to know either Josh." Maya said as she turned to Josh who surprisingly hadn't complained when he found out that he wouldn't get to know what Maya and Cory talked about.

"That's actually just fine, you seem happy with how the conversation went and that is enough for me. I don't need to know every single reason why you're in a good mood, it's enough to know that you are in a good mood." Josh answered truthfully.

"Enough with the cheesiness Josh, just give me a kiss and fill me in on what I've missed here."

"As you wish."

* * *

 **Okay so I failed last week and I have no excuse, Time flies when you're having fun with other stuff and while it is certainly fun when I get into it, it takes quite a bit of effort and planning to actually sit down. Now when I write I always listen to music in the background and more often than not the chapter ends up influenced by at least one of the songs that I listened to. So I'd like you to give me a few song suggestions and I'll see if they end up affecting the next chapter in any way. I can't guarantee that I'll end up liking the songs, but as long as you avoid pop, opera and classical music it's usually safe.**

 **As usual, tell me your thoughts on the chapter. Hop I'll manage to update soon, until then bye!**


	42. The last days of the year

_**The last days of the year**_

* * *

"So, new year's, anything that you want to do in the year that is to come?" Maya asked Josh. Maya had invited him over to her parents the day after Christmas day. It was still early morning, but Maya had had to promise her parents that she would get dressed and get ready for the day before letting him in. Shawn had made the argument that when she stayed with them he'd have some semblance of control when it came to how far Maya and Josh could go. Maya didn't really mind all too much so she hadn't argued with her stepfather. They ended up with their arms wrapped around each other in her bed anyways. True, the bed was fully made and they were both fully dressed, but it was still enough for Maya.

"There are several things that I want to do, but nothing that's new really. What about you?"

"Well, you know what I want to do by the end of the year. Honestly, I really hope that it doesn't take that long until I'm able to say it."

"I kind of figured you'd bring that up. There is no need to rush though, you know that."

"I know, but I can't help myself wanting to be able to do it though."

"I see your point, but how about this for something to think about instead? There are now five days until new year's eve where we will get to have our first kiss of the new year."

"And here I thought that the girl was usually the one who was all excited about stuff like that?"

"Well that might be true, but these other guys they don't get the opportunity to kiss you. I can easily see how that makes it less appealing."

"Smooth Josh, very smooth."

"Thanks, I'd have thought you'd be more excited though, especially considering you made the argument about girls usually being more excited for this kind of stuff."

"Well I'm only kissing you so who would be excited about that?" Maya said sticking her tongue out.

"You take that back, you take it back right now!" Josh said trying to act offended.

"Make me."

"Well you asked for it." Josh said as he tightened his grip around her so that his arms could reach around her and reach her sides so that he could tickle her. "Here it comes." Josh told her as he started attacking her sides. Maya squealed and trashed around in his arms, but Josh was much stronger than her so she had no way of getting out of his grip.

"Josh! Stop please!" Maya pleaded gasping for air. Josh finally stopped tickling her and loosened his grip around her. "Thanks," Maya managed.

"Yeah you seemed like you'd had enough." Josh said freeing one of his arms from around her so that he could move the hairs that had gotten in Maya's face. "You look beautiful." Josh said.

"Are you just saying that because my cheeks are flushed and you like seeing me like that?"

"Not at all, I'm saying it because it's true and I felt like letting you know. So, about that New year's kiss?"

"Fine." Maya conceded, "I'm looking forward to it as well."

* * *

"So, any new year's resolutions?" Riley asked Maya as they were getting ready for the night. The remaining days until new year's eve had flown by before Maya had realized it. The days had mostly been spent with Josh and Riley watching movies and playing a few video games. The latter was mostly because Riley was missing Lucas and Josh had a few games that they could play with Lucas online. Despite not being much of a gamer Maya had to admit that she was having a lot of fun. Josh and Lucas weren't super competitive either so it was all light hearted fun.

"I thought about one, the obvious one, you know?" Riley nodded, "I decided after talking to Josh that I didn't want that though. I'd rather have none I think. What about you?"

"Yeah, I have one. That I'm going to be celebrating the new year with Lucas next year. Is it annoying that I'm hanging around you and Josh all the time now that Lucas isn't here?" Riley asked, she'd been worrying that she'd been cutting into Josh and Maya's alone time.

"Of course not. Riley, I love having you around. I was always hanging around you and Lucas before I got together with Josh. You didn't get mad at me then so how could I ever be mad at you. I still think that it's good that you want to spend new year's with Lucas, I'm sure he feels the same."

"Thanks Maya, That dress looks really good on you by the way. You do realize that you're going to have to bring some warmer clothes for the night though, right?"

"Of course, but there's nothing wrong with finding a cute dress first. I'll just use one my oversized hoodies for when we go out to watch the fireworks."

"Your oversized hoodies? Don't you mean Josh's regular sized hoodies?" Riley asked as Maya pulled out a hoodie from her bag.

"Hey, he's not getting it back. That means that it's mine right?"

"I suppose, as for me I think I'm just going jeans and a nice top from the beginning I think."

"That works as well."

"So, excited for the night?" Riley asked.

"Well it's certainly going to be nice spending new year's with a guy for the first time since that time three years ago when it was with Lucas, wow that was a catastrophic night."

"Yeah it was, but Farkle did make the right call by telling everyone. I was so incredibly mad at him at the time, but now I don't think I could thank him enough."

"Let's hope that tonight doesn't bring that many surprises.

* * *

 **This chapter took me all week to write. I wasn't putting it off, but for some reason I just couldn't figure out how to write it. I just hope that the next chapter is a little bit easier to do. As usual tell me your thoughts on the chapter and I'll see you next week I hope.**


	43. Pranking the pranksters

_**Pranking the pranksters**_

* * *

"So, dinner tonight went quite a bit better than Christmas wouldn't you say?" Riley asked Josh and Maya as they sat in the bed window waiting for the city to really come alive.

"Yeah it was, but I think that was mostly because mom and dad left. Mom make Topanga stress out a bit." Josh knew that his mother didn't mean anything bad with her comments, but he still wished that she'd go a bit easier on Topanga. Everything usually turned out fine, so he really saw no reason to bug her any more than necessary.

"I think a bit is understating it, You're right though. Grandma and grandpa leaving definitely helper her calm down. So how long do you think Cory and Shawn are going to be yipping in the living room?"

"Cory's been like that for years, but on new year's he's just about as much of an excited kid as Auggie used to be. He'll be up soon enough, and when he wakes up there's no way that Shawn is going to be allowed to sleep for long." Josh spoke from experience, he'd long since grown used to his older brother's antics.

"Let's hope that you're right, because I don't want to spend the next 3 hours confined here in this bedroom." Maya said, while she was usually all for spending time with Riley and Josh she had something that she wanted to try. She knew that Cory being awake was going to make all the more interesting.

"I get what you mean. We don't really have to stay here, but the sleeping dads in the middle of the living room are making it slightly less appealing to be there." Riley complained.

"Have you tried asking Auggie to wake them up?" Maya asked.

"My little brother isn't 7 anymore, do you really think that he'd want to mess around like that anymore? He's 10 you know. Besides, he's on the phone with Ava."

"why wouldn't he want to mess with Cory at the age of 10? By that age, that was about the only thing I did." Maya said.

"Yeah, you're right, but there are some differences between the two of you though. I'm actually surprised that you're not messing with him still."

"That's not a bad idea though. How far do you think I can take it without going too far though?" Maya asked with a wicked grin on her face.

"I think you can take it quite far, as long as you make sure that Topanga and Katy don't disagree with what you're doing too much." Josh said curious to see what Maya had in mind.

"I think they'll be all for it, just follow me and see what happens."

* * *

Back in the living room Cory and Shawn were still sleeping soundly in the couch so Maya walked over to her mom and Topanga to ask them if she could play a little prank on them. After she got their approval she went into Cory and Topanga's bathroom to find Cory's shaving cream. Shawn had one of his hands lying free, so she filled it with cream before poking him to get some kind of reaction from him. With Shawn still being very much asleep reacted turning slightly around to show Cory's face away since he believed that it was Cory that was disturbing his sleep. Of course with his free hand being filled with shaving cream Cory ended up with his face completely white from the cream. Just as Maya had hoped Cory woke up from being shoved in the face only to find his vision blurred by the shaving cream.

"What is going on!" Cory asked out loud trying to wipe away the cream. When he finally got rid of enough cream so that he could see properly the first thing he saw was Shawn's still white hand. Now if Cory had taken a few seconds to think about the situation, he would have easily figured out that Shawn was not the person to blame in all of this. Cory, having just woken up from his nap, did not take those few seconds. Instead he grabbed the nearest pillow he could find and hit Shawn with it right in his face.

"I'm up! I'm up!" Shawn said immediately getting to his feet just as he saw the second swing of the pillow coming towards him. "Oof, Hey!" Shawn shouted, obviously not happy about the treatment that he was getting.

"That's what you get for smearing shaving cream all over my face!" Cory replied trying to raise the pillow for a third swing, but Shawn was now up and managed to wrestle the pillow from his arms.

"Why do you think I did it? I was asleep!"

"But your hand was filled with cream!" Cory answered back in defense.

"Maybe because somebody else filled it with cream while I was sleeping!"

"Oh yeah, that would actually make more sense." Cory said with his voice now back to its regular volume. "Hey!" He said suddenly spinning around to face Maya. "This was you! This has Maya written all over it!"

"Hey dad?" Maya asked suddenly a bit scared of her old teacher. "Mind giving me a hand? He hit you twice you know."

"Sure, I can give you a hand." He said holding up his still white hand. "I'm not so sure that you're going to like it though." Just as she was about to run away to Riley's bedroom in the hopes of getting away from the two men who she now realized were having the time of their lives, she felt someone put the can of shaving cream in her hand.

"It seemed like it would be a bit unfair if you didn't get any weapons to fight back against them." Josh said before hurrying out of the way.

"You're going to pay for this little brother!" Cory said just before his face was once again filled with shaving cream.

"I'm sure I will, but I figured that if that was the price I had to pay for helping my girlfriend then it would definitely be worth it." Josh said with a confident smirk.

"As soon as I'm done with my daughter I'll make you eat those words Josh!" Shawn said just as he reached Maya who started shrieking with laughter.

* * *

 **So, it seemed like a lot of you were expecting this chapter to contain the new years kiss. Sorry about that, but I had way too much fun coming up with this chapter to not make something out of it. Now I have four or five "events" planned for the chapters coming, one of them is the rooftop later on New year's eve don't worry. No I don't feel like I'm spoiling anything by saying that because come on how else would they celebrate New year? I'm not a New Yorker, I'm not even an american so I obviously have zero experience with times square so there was no way that I was going to put that in.**

 **I'm trying to get better at replying to reviews by the ones who actually use an account to leave reviews (it's free to make an account so you really should), but obviously there is a huge room for improvement on that part. I love having back and forth conversations about the story with you so I really hope you don't mind. Now next week is where my life starts getting hectic again, but as it is now I'm managing one hour of writing every day which is something that should be manageable when lectures start up again as well. Just keep in mind that I will have to prioritize my education(sadly). There is also the second story that I'm finaly starting to get back into which I'm now spending most of the writing hours during the weeks, but I have no intention of stopping this story anytime soon. I want to see how far I can take this.**

 **As usual feel free to leave me your thoughts on the chapter and I'll try to get back to you if you feel like that's something you would be interested in. I'll also try to upload next week as well. We'll see how it all goes.**


	44. Trying game night once more

_**Trying game night once more**_

* * *

"Are you happy now?" Maya said trying to sound angry, despite having plans to change sometime during the night she had been expecting that to happen right before they would go up to the roof and not several hours earlier because of her dress getting smeared with shaving cream. She'd taken a quick shower and after deciding to give up on her makeup for the night she'd found a pair of jeans and chose to wear that along with Josh's hoodie. Shawn had looked like he wanted to comment on her choice of clothing, but after a quick look from Katy he'd stayed quiet. Maya knew how much of a ladies' man Shawn had been when he was younger, and she figured that it might have brought back some memories of those days. While Shawn was still very much like he'd been when he was younger when it came to being impulsive it was clear that he didn't appreciate his stepdaughter looking like the girls that he'd dated back in high school.

"You can't expect us to feel sorry for you when it comes to that Maya." Cory said. He'd gotten off easy with only having to wash his face off and then having to change sweater. The same could be said for Shawn who was merely shaking his head at his stepdaughter's complaints.

"A girl can try right? Besides, none of this would have happened if you two hadn't fallen asleep you know?"

"Though that may be true, but you should be used to our naps by now." Shawn defended.

"Sure I am, but I was kind of hoping that we could use the living room for a game instead of watching you two sleep."

"So what game did you have in mind Maya?" Cory asked always up for a game.

"Actually, I'm going to leave that up to you, either the couple's game or the family game?"

"What's the catch here? Do you have some sort of plan? You know that that won't work out with the teams right?"

"I'm pretty sure that it will, just pick your game and we will decide on the teams."

"I can't decide that so we'll do it with a coin toss instead." Cory said finding a coin that he had in his wallet. "Heads is couple's game and tails is family game." He said throwing the coin up in the before catching it and slamming it down on his other hand. As he lifted up his hand Maya turned to Josh when she saw that the coin landed heads up.

"I know that you felt like you had to be the announcer last time we had a game night together, but how would you feel about being my partner this time?"

"You already know the answer to that Maya." Josh said wrapping his arms around her to pull her close.

"So we're three couples here and Riley and Auggie, it seems like you've already decided to pair up but where does that leave my son and daughter?" Topanga asked.

"Well my idea was this: they should know each other quite well so why can't they team up? Besides you they're the ones who hate the lose the most, so they should be fine with this right?"

"It's fine with me." Riley said and Auggie nodded.

"So you want to play against me and Cory who've had a all these years together? What makes you think that you even have a chance?"

"We're just doing this to have some fun, besides you shouldn't complain about this right?" Katy asked taking Shawn's hand. She wasn't much of a competitive person, but with her having found Shawn so late in her life she was all for every opportunity to learn something new about him.

"Fine then, we'll go first if that's okay with you?" Riley asked. And the others nodded.

"What is your partner's favorite color?" Auggie read from the first card. "That's simple, Riley's favorite color is purple."

"And Auggie's is green."

"Our turn next." Topanga said and drew a card. "How old was your partner when they had their first kiss? This one is easy. He was 12."

"And she was also 12 when she kissed me." Cory said.

* * *

The game progressed like that for a while with everyone managing to answer the questions that they were asked until it had gone around three times and it ended up at Josh and Maya.

"How many people have your partner kissed?" Maya hesitantly read. So far the questions hadn't asked for anything that she didn't already know about Josh and vice versa. This one she didn't know how to handle though. "Uhm, five?" she guessed.

"Six," Josh mumbled as if he was ashamed of the number. He then thought for a while before hesitantly asking, "one?"

"Two." Maya said looking at Josh to see what kind of reaction he made only to see him staring back at her in confusion. "Josh?" Maya asked snapping her finger in front of Josh to get him out of the daze that he seemed to be in.

"Right." He said as his focus returned. "It was fun playing but I think that I'm done for now." He said before he walked out of the living room to escape to Riley's bedroom.

"Stupid me thinking that anything good could ever come out of playing this game." Maya muttered as she ran after him.

* * *

"Josh?" Maya tried as she opened the door to Riley's bedroom.

"I shouldn't have acted like that should I? You didn't freak out when you found out about the people that I've kissed and there were five others so how is it fair to you that I acted like that just because I found out that I wasn't your first kiss."

"It's alright, I think the difference here is how I expected you to have gone to first base with people before we got together. I liked you for so long that you probably didn't think that I would have had time to get close enough to anyone else to do that."

"First base? Maya, I pecked their lips just to see if I could ever anything towards them, but it never got any further than that. You're the only one that I've ever been sure that I could fall in love with. I thought that you would have been the same. So who was the other lucky guy?"

"Zay." Maya told him quietly."

"Really? You and him? How long ago was that?"

"You remember the Taco Palooza? Zay asked you if he could take me out on a date and you said yes."

"I didn't think that you would go out on dates, I thought that he was just helping you not to feel alone." Josh mumbled suddenly feeling jealous.

"Are you okay with this?" Maya asked nervously.

"I don't know. I'm going to have to take some time to figure this out though. I'll see you later Maya." Josh knew that he was freaking out, but he couldn't help it. He climbed out the window without even caring that he wasn't wearing a jacket. He could hear Maya shouting for him, but he knew her well enough to know that she wouldn't run after him. If he wanted to be alone then she would let him. He found his phone in his pocket and scrolled through his contacts until he found the one that he was looking for.

* * *

 **Summer vacation is over for me and thus I'm going to have to spend some time studying as well now. So, even though I'm hoping that I'll be able to update again next week, it might take longer. Please tell me your thoughts on the chapter and I'll see you next time.**


	45. The last hours of the year

_**The last hours of the new year.**_

* * *

"Hey Josh." Lucas said when he picked up the phone. "Is everything alright there, how's Riley?"

"Riley's doing great." Josh did his best to keep his voice normal. "Listen, I know you're spending New Year's Eve with Zay and I really need to talk to him. It's about Maya."

"Sure," Lucas answered before he heard him shouting to Zay.

"Yeah, this is Zay." He heard after some shuffling with the phone.

"Yeah, this is Josh. I need to talk to you about Maya."

"Sure? Are you guys okay?"

"That might end up depending on what your answer is. She said you guys kissed. Like kissed for real."

"Damn Maya, why did you have to go and say that." Zay mumbled. "Yeah we did, three years ago."

"How serious were you two?" Josh asked.

"You know I asked you for your permission to take her out on a date. Well at the time I thought I liked her and I took her out on this date to a nice café. Nothing too fancy because that didn't feel like somewhere either of us would fit in, but the place that we went to was secluded and we spent the date just talking and having a good time. For me that was the date that I'd always dreamed of. There came a moment where we both ended up just looking at each other for a while, for others it might have been awkward, but we were just enjoying being there. I touched her cheek and asked her if it was okay. So, I kissed her. It probably wasn't as innocent as you'd might expect a first kiss to be, but it was nothing more than a kiss. We both realized somewhere during it that we were there with the wrong person. Now at the time I was struggling with deciding where I wanted to stay, if I wanted to stay in New York or go back to Texas. The kiss made me realize that the feelings I thought I had towards her were just that of a good friend."

"And her? How did she feel?"

"She'd always been hesitant and deep down I knew it I think. She didn't want to hurt my feelings and that was why she agreed to the date, but I think that the kiss made her realize that she couldn't do that when she had feelings for someone else. I'm grateful towards Maya because if it hadn't been for the date and the kiss I would have never realized I needed to find someone that actually felt right to be with. Maya is a great friend, but she is a friend and I know that that's the only way she sees me as well. If it hadn't been for her I would have never been able to trust my gut and go back to Texas to get the woman that I fell for so long ago."

"You have a girlfriend right now?"

"Yeah, her name is Vanessa, we kind of reconnected back when we all visited Texas."

"So you can say completely honestly that I have nothing to worry about?"

"Absolutely, what's got you freaking out so badly anyways? Trust me, even if me and her both had our first kiss together we both quickly realized that that wasn't how it was supposed to feel. As far as I'm concerned I had my first real kiss with Vanessa and she had hers with you."

"how can you be sure that she feels the same way as you do."

"It's all in the way it feels when it's with the right person. You just know that it's right. Yeah I was unsure of how it was supposed to feel and that's why it took me a few seconds to figure out that something was wrong, but I realized that Maya would never give me that feeling. I know that she didn't feel that with me either and I also know that she gets that with you. Josh I'm not going to nag at you for very much longer because I have a beautiful girl waiting for me right here, but let me tell you this: It has always been you, Maya has always and will always love you so please don't break her heart. That girl needs to allow herself to love again and I know that if it's not going to happen with you, then it's not going to happen with anyone."

"Thanks Zay, enjoy the rest of the night." Josh said hanging up. As he hung up the phone he noticed a pair of messages.

'I'm so sorry that I didn't tell you this earlier, but I didn't know how to. I know that the perfect New Year's Eve is probably ruined, but I just hope that I didn't ruin the single greatest thing that ever happened to me. I'll be here waiting and hoping that somewhere deep inside you still have hope for us. I love you, no matter what you may feel for me right now.' The first text was from Maya and it was one that he'd been expecting. The second one however, was from Shawn.

'Riley's doing her best to comfort Maya. I told you once before that you were going to have to leave on good terms if that was ever your intention. I don't know how you feel right now, but I still have faith in you. The ball's in your court now.'

'I've made my mind up, thanks Shawn.' He answered to his text. Josh couldn't believe that even when his daughter was crying her heart out that Shawn could still have faith in him. He knew from the way that he'd talked about their relationship back when him and Maya broke up the first time that he cared about Maya above all. That helped Josh cement his choice. Maya definitely deserved a guy that loved her. 'I'll see you up on the roof I have something I need to get off my chest before the new year starts.' Josh sent to answer Maya's text before starting on his way back to the apartment.

* * *

 **I'm happy with the way that the story is progressing right now, if you're not and therefore decide that you don't want to continue reading then I sincerely hope that you find some other story to read instead. That is all, I'll be back again next week.**


	46. It was with you

_**It was with you**_

* * *

On his way back to the apartment Josh wondered why his niece hadn't sent him any texts or tried calling him. He figured she would be all over the place trying to fix it. He appreciated how deeply Riley cared about his and Maya's relationship, but he was also thankful that she'd seemingly left them to figure it out on their own. While his talk with Zay had cleared his mind he realized that he would have probably made the same decision after a while of thinking. He didn't bother going back into the apartment where he knew that his and Maya's family was waiting for him. He knew that Maya wouldn't be there so he went to the top floor of the apartment complex where he and Maya had ended their first date. Where he knew that an hour from now they'd both been expecting a New year's kiss.

"You came." Josh heard Maya say as he opened the door. She looked like she'd been crying nonstop up until the last five minutes. How she'd known when he be there he would never know, but then again, she'd always been good at figuring him out.

"Yeah, I would never lie to you. I said I had something that I needed to say and so here I am."

"So, I don't know what to expect. If I should be hopeful at all, but can you please tell me what you've decided?" Josh saw the look on Maya's face and the sadness that he saw there was the same that he'd seen on his own face in the mirror back when he and Maya broke up.

"I talked to Zay. He told me about the circumstances of the kiss, I figured that it would be smart to know about them seeing as I ran off before you could tell me." Maya merely nodded, not really sure where Josh was going with his explanation. "I really can't say that I'm okay with you kissing Zay, but he said something that I can completely relate to. He said that it's all in the way it feels when it's the right person. I've never had that feeling that I get from kissing you before. The way that Zay spoke about how it was for him to be with Vanessa was something I know that one can only feel with one person. I know how close I was to losing that back when we broke up the first time so, I'm not going to go through that again. You took me back then and I'm here to say that I'm not letting you go now. You're my one and that's not going to change, I love you."

"Really?" Josh saw the tears forming again in Maya's eyes. He nodded and Maya closed the distance between them in a second before wrapping her arms around him. "I thought that I'd lost you for good." Maya said between sobs.

"For a while I thought we were over for good as well, but I realized that I don't think I'd ever want to be with anyone other than you." Josh said as he hugged her back.

"The same goes for me." Maya said. Josh tilted her cheek upward before lifting her up and giving her a kiss. "Sorry, that probably wasn't a good kiss."

"It was great, it was with you." Josh answered back.

* * *

 **So this chapter is quite a bit shorter than my average chapters, but I still felt like ending it there. So sunday two weeks ago I had an accident which ended with me getting a light concussion as well as some problems with my neck and collarbones. When your neck and head hurts it doesn't feel very good to sit at a desk typing out a chapter so that's partly the reason for the chapter being so late. I'm back to full health now and the chapters will hopefully come out as often as they did previously so I'll see you next week.**

 **Now as I stated in the last chapter, I'm happy with how the story is progressing and it's going to continue the way that I planned it. I'm not forcing you to keep reading if you don't like it so I hope that anyone reading stories on this site find stories that they actually like. If one of those happens to be this one then great! Keep reading.**


	47. Let's get it right this time

_**Let's get it right this time**_

* * *

Emily had just finished bringing her bags back into her dorm room when her phone pinged and she saw that she had a message from Maya.

'Hey, I feel like I haven't spoken to you since we left school. Are you back at school? And if you are, how would you feel about having a visitor?' Emily smiled, she figured that by now Josh was catching up with Daimon and that that was how Maya knew Emily was probably back. She asked Maya to give her 15 minutes and started working on unpacking her clothes. She didn't want the bags lying around the room when Maya came over.

"So, Riley told me about the drama that you went through on New Year's Eve. Are you okay now?"

"Well we're still together if that's what you mean, but it got me thinking. I'm not sure that we're going to make it if anything like this ever comes up again. I know that Josh's feelings are still as strong as ever and so are mine, but there has to be a limit to how much he can take if I continue to mess things up time and time again. I know that I won't be able to take it if I lose him."

"I think that you're blaming yourself too much. People screw up from time to time, it happens to everyone."

"But what If that screw up leads to me losing him?"

"You love each other, I'm certain that you will figure it out. Anyways, what were you going to do about your thoughts? You're not giving up, are you?"

"Absolutely, but I know that I'm going to have to shape up. I have to get it right this time. If I'm scared of losing him, then I'm just going to have to better myself for him. Because I love him."

* * *

"Welcome back!" Daimon said as Josh entered their shared room.

"Thanks, Happy new year." Josh said back. He couldn't believe that there used to be a time when he hated Daimon for being such a disgusting guy. Nowadays he was one of the best people he knew. "Thanks for the Christmas present by the way, I feel like I should have gotten something for you in return."

"It was nothing really, but if you want to get me something back, then how about you show me what you can do with them. I'm not you, but I feel like those ones at least came out decent enough."

"I can't wait to see them. I didn't bring any computers or anything to my brother's over Christmas, so I actually haven't seen them yet."

"Well, you have your computer here so feel free to boot it up right now, I kind of want to see your reaction to them as well." Daimon said bringing up a chair.

"Really? I'm not sure I want you looking over my shoulder while I'm working."

"Oh don't worry, I'll be gone by the time that you actually start working on them. I just want to see your reaction. I know you like to keep your working sessions to yourself so I'll give you your space."

"Thanks, I appreciate it." Josh said smiling. He turned to the screen where his computer had just finished its startup, he found his headset and put it over one ear like he usually did when he was about to start working on a project. He plugged the memory stick in and opened the folder. The first one was a picture of him and Maya sitting in a sofa in the student lounge. Josh had his arm draped over Maya's shoulder and he was smiling down at her. She seemed to be laughing. Josh couldn't quite remember what it was about, but the picture made him smile. The next one was in Josh's dorm room. Josh was sitting in his bed while Maya was resting her back against his chest She seemed to be reading a book while she had his headset on. Josh looked at his own face in the picture and found that his eyes were closed. Apparently he was sound asleep with his arms wrapped around her. The next picture seemed to have been taken just a moment later, Maya had turned her head to kiss Josh's cheek.

"I think she knew I was there, but she didn't seem to mind the photographing." Daimon told Josh.

"Yeah, she probably did, but I definitely didn't have a clue."

"Oh really? I never would have guessed." The rest of the pictures were all of nice and quiet moments that Josh and Maya had shared. When they were just going through their daily lives. The first one though was the one that he remembered the most. Josh was sitting in a chair in the student lounge and Maya had walked over. In the picture he looked completely flustered and lost for words.

"That's from before me and Maya got together right? I remember I wanted to ask her out so badly, but I was too chicken."

"Yeah, I saw how you acted. I also saw how she looked at you when she turned back as she walked away from you. I knew that you both liked each other, so I decided that I would give you a little push. This was right after Emily had changed my life, so I felt like I should do something nice for you to make up for all the times that I'd annoyed you."

"I know that I've said it before, but thank you so much for getting me and Maya together. It was the best thing that anyone has ever done for me."

"Let's just hope that you stay together for good this time. If you've found the one that feels right for you, then that's it. You've got to keep them in your life." Daimon told him.

"Don't worry, we'll get it right this time."

* * *

 **I've been gone for a while. My schedule has been completely messed up for a while so it took some time for me to sit down to write this. I'm trying to get into my routine again so I'm hoping that this time I'll be able to keep it. As usual, keep reading if you feel like it. Now constructive criticism is always welcome, but the flamers are kind of draining to deal with. I'm not forcing you to keep reading if you don't want to so I hope that you're only reading the story because you actually want to.**

 **Until next time (I hope it won't be too long).**


	48. What's next?

_**What's next?**_

* * *

"So you're sure that you want to continue pushing yourself and the relationship further?" Smackle asked Maya. Maya had thrown out Riley from the dorm room almost immediately after Smackle came. She felt sort of bad because she knew that Riley also wanted to catch up with Smackle, but this was something that was incredibly important to her and to Josh.

"I don't want anything to threaten mine and Josh's relationship ever again and that's why it's important for me to keep going. You should have seen how happy he was when I met him after sending the text to him. I want to see him like that again. Please Smackle, I want to continue this." Maya pleaded. "I promise, that text had nothing to do with our fight. If anything it probably helped solve it more than it contributed to it."

"If you're sure that it didn't lead to the fight then I'm willing to continue helping you. I'm guessing that your interest in this has something to do with Josh's birthday that is coming up a mere month after yours right?"

"I'm not doing this merely to please him no, but yes I think it would be a nice thing if I was somehow able to get the next step down by his birthday."

"Well I'm willing to help you, but I can't really say that I know what else there is for you to do so this part of it is probably going to be quite frustrating. Are you sure that you can handle that?"

"What do you mean about frustrating?"

"Well, Josh has never had a problem telling you his feelings right?" Maya nodded and looked down as if she was ashamed. "I didn't say it so that you would be disappointed in yourself Maya. My point is that you're going to have to get comfortable with the idea of saying it back. It has been terrifying before and that's why I introduced the idea of sending it in a text. You were terrified of writing it in a text a mere three weeks ago and now it's completely normal. You mean it every time that you send it, that's why it feels so natural for you. You're going to get that feeling when it comes to saying it face to face sooner or later as well."

"So there is no middle ground? No way to ease myself into this?"

"It's going to be hard, but you can at least try this. Just try holding Josh's gaze a bit longer than usual after he says it. Maybe you'll feel something like you did that morning when you called me. One advice that I can give you is that if you ever feel like it then don't hold back. It's meant to feel natural so you can't force it, but that also means that you shouldn't force it back. Let it out."

"I know that you probably hate the fact that you can't give me the definite answers to my questions Smackle, but really, thank you so much for everything that you're doing for me."

"I have to help you with your great advice when it came to the Christmas gift to Farkle."

"So what did you end up getting him?"

"A set of older computer parts. He loves to tinker with stuff so I gave him something to work with that he won't get from his dad's company."

"I knew that you would figure it out, I take it he liked the gift idea?"

"Well the giant hug and the wonderful kiss that I got from him certainly suggests it. I'm so glad that you didn't actually tell me directly what I needed to get for him though. That way it still had a touch of me in it."

"Since it's old computers and stuff, it shouldn't have cost you that much either right?" Maya asked.

"Oh it cost me quite a lot actually. I want for some really old computer parts that aren't exactly easy to come by now. I wanted to be on the safe side. Don't worry about the price though, it was well worth the money that I spent on it."

"As long as you think that then I'm sure that it was. Besides I can't blame you for wanting to spoil your man. I mean Farkle, sorry."

"Yeah, the gift that you gave to Josh certainly wasn't very cheap either, but you still haven't told me much about what you got from him though."

"It was a really beautiful bracelet that I can't wear right now. I will though, and when I do it will show Josh that he doesn't have to worry about out relationship anymore."

"You're determined, that has to count for something. Like I said, I'll help you however I can. As long as you're sure that it won't hurt the relationship." Smackle said.

* * *

"So I finally get you all to myself at long last." Josh said. Maya had knocked on the door to Josh and Daimon's apartment and Josh had immediately opened. He'd been sitting with his photo editing until about 20 minutes before Maya knocked on the door. Where Daimon had gone he had no idea, but he had a pretty good idea that it involved Emily.

"It hasn't been that long since we came back to the university Josh. Both you and I had to catch up with the others."

"I know, but that still doesn't stop me from wanting to spend time with you. That's how feelings work Maya. It's the 3rd of January and I could really use a few tips when it comes to a certain someone's upcoming birthday. That might have something to do with it as well."

"You're sure that you don't want to be inventive and come up with something on your own?" Maya asked.

"Oh I'm sure that I'll probably put my own twist on it in the end, but it doesn't hurt to narrow the searching field a little bit. I think I'll still be able to surprise you in the end."

"Oh? What makes you so sure?"

"Well I want to do something special for you. Because I love you." Maya looked at Josh just studying his face. He seemed so sincere and sure. She was going to get there at some point as well.

"Come here." She said and pulled him in for a kiss.

* * *

 **I feel like I at least have to try to stay with the characters' original birthdays so there are a couple of them coming up soon. I'll be back next week hopefully. I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.**


	49. Back to painting

_**Back to painting**_

Maya couldn't believe that it had been two weeks since the last time that she had found time to paint, but she was happy that she had finally decided to take the hour to do so now. While she was usually making figurative art, she had decided to work on an abstract that day. The way that the colors blended together so smoothly made her feel calm. While some people would grow bored while painting an abstract because of how they were created by seemingly random strokes of a brush, Maya loved it. Abstracts were perfect when she wanted time to reflect and she would always leave a finished product. The way that the colors mixed together with each other reflected how she was feeling at the time of the painting better than she could put into words. Maya smiled as she put away the painting supplies and took one last look at the painting. It looked so harmonious.

"Maya, are you already finished with the painting?" Riley asked when she found her in the student lounge.

"Yeah, it felt good though. It's great to be back."

"But if you're done then how come you didn't come find me afterwards? I thought that we had plans?"

"We did?" Maya could not remember making any plans with Riley for that day.

"Yeah, we were going to have a pizza with Emily and Smackle while we pester you for birthday gift ideas."

"You've never told me about those plans Riley."

"Oh, my bad. You should have predicted it though, we've been doing it like that since middle school."

"True, does Emily know about your plans then? She hasn't known us that long."

"I think I mentioned it to her, but we had better send her a text before she forgets."

"Yeah, before _she_ forgets." Maya said while obviously being skeptic of her friend. She pulled out her phone and typed out a text to both Smackle and Emily explaining the situation.

'That sounds good, I could do with some hints. My room since I heard you were painting today the painting is probably still drying in your room right?' Emily asked

'I was waiting for this, but didn't we tell Riley to tell us in advance last year?' came the text reply from Smackle. Maya answered both of the texts and pulled Riley along with her to Emily's room where they met Daimon at the door.

"Don't worry, I'm just leaving because apparently I'm not allowed to be here for this." Daimon said. The expression on his face told them that he was just joking, but he seemed sort of disappointed that he wasn't allowed to stay.

"Are you not seeing each other enough? Daimon didn't seem very happy that he had to leave." Maya said.

"We do see each other almost all the time, but he was complaining about you being a difficult person to find a gift for, so he wanted to stay here to get some advices as well."

"He'll have to pester Josh then or find some other time to ask me on his own then. Girls night is just that." Maya told her.

"And here I thought that you didn't want to have us pestering you for gift ideas at all?" Smackle asked.

"Well that's true, but I'll just have to find a way to distract you for a few hours and then it'll all be good."

"You can't do that!" Riley complained. "If you do that then we won't know what to give you."

"Why don't you just do what I do whenever I have to get someone a gift? I just take some time to figure out what the person likes and then I take it from there." Maya said. "I find it easier to come up with ideas for others than I do for myself anyways."

"Well you do give great advice though, thanks for the tip Maya." Emily said as she opened the box to reveal a pizza that was a mix of all their preferences. She had some ideas for what she could get for Maya now and she figured she would just sit back and enjoy the show for the rest of the night.

"How is that supposed to help me?" _And there it is._ She thought. "I know that you enjoy painting, but you already have enough painting supplies for them to take up most of our dorm room. I don't know what else to get you."

"Most of our dorm room you say, Riley? You're forgetting that your clothes which you leave lying on the floor does that already. Compared to that, my painting supplies take up next to no space. And they're also organized."

"Come on Riley. She gave us her advice, now it's time for us to figure out what to do with it. Besides, Maya's not really thinking about her own birthday. At the moment she has her mind occupied with coming up with something to do for Josh's birthday, even though it's more than a month ahead." Smackle said with a knowing smile. "I'm right aren't I?"

"Yeah you are. I do have several ideas, but I'm going to need some time to figure it all out." She said as she reached for a slice of her part of the pizza. "My mind doesn't work too well on an empty stomach though." At that they all grabbed a slice.

"I don't think that my mind is going to come up with any ideas whether my stomach's full or not at this rate." Riley said.

* * *

 **Well happy New Year and all that. I have been gone for a few months and my only explanation is that I messed up the routine that I had. Now I am trying to get back into it again, but it will probably take some time. I am however aiming for a chapter each week as the average, but I might end up missing some weeks here and there. I do have a plan for how to round up this story and I am not leaving it before it is finished. After that happens I think I will end up making some shorter stories. When that time comes I will probably try to take a few requests as well if there is something you would like to see me try. Now I would love to try to tackle someone else's isead, but I cannot recommend enough for you to try your hand at writing your own stories. There will probably be ups and downs for you depending on how the story goes and how it is recieved, but if you do decide to try it out I hope that you stick to your own idea of how you want the story to play out.**

 **See you next week if you have yet to grow tired of this tardy teacher in the making.**


	50. The pauses

_**The pauses**_

* * *

"So I take it that Riley didn't get what she wanted, did she?" Josh asked Maya when they were doing their homework together back in Maya's dorm room. She was sitting on the bed that was now filled with school books while Josh was seated at the desk. She hadn't been allowed to go to sleep before she cleaned up the mess from the painting session even though it was past midnight when Maya and the others finished their girl's night the previous night.

"No she didn't, the others seemed quite happy with what they got though. That means I wasn't too terrible right?"

"That depends on who you're asking, Daimon wasn't very happy with you last night."

"Well nobody told him that he would need to get me a gift either you know."

"Well it is Daimon and you know how much he cares about that. If he's decided that he wants to get someone a gift, then he will."

"Speaking of, have you decided to stop pestering me for gift ideas or are you still going to continue that?"

"I have the plan ready at this point, so I'm done with pressing you for ideas."

"Oh, do I get a hint?" Maya asked hopefully.

"Yeah right, you give me no ideas and yet you expect for me to give you hints when I had to come up with it all on my own? That doesn't seem fair. Besides, that would ruin the surprise and we can't have that."

"I don't like you when you keep secrets from me." Maya crossed her arms under her chest.

"Well it's twice a year, at least for this reason. I think you could learn to live with that."

"Yeah, besides, I'm more excited about your birthday gifts because I know something that you don't about a certain someone's gift to you."

"who do you mean? Who is this someone?"

"they told me not to tell you, I just know that you're going to like the gift a lot."

"And you complain about me being mean?"

"Well you sometimes are, but I didn't say that I was any better now did I?"

"I still like you though." Josh said looking up from his work for the first time in a while.

"Well you're kind of weird then." Maya said and met Josh's eyes. "but I like you too."

"Well then, I guess that means that you're weird as well. Are you done with your homework yet?"

"No, it's taking forever. Can we take a break?"

"You do realize that we will have to do it eventually anyways right? Isn't it better to just do it now and then take the rest of the day of?"

"fine." Maya groaned. "You're kind of a slave driver, you know that right?"

"Not really, I just want to be able to relax with you later without having to worry about the homework being due. That makes sense right?"

"In my head it does, but I'm just having such a hard time focusing on the workload. It's all too much, even with you working as a motivation booster."

"Oh really? Is that all I am to you?" Josh asked her.

"Yes, yes you are." Maya answered back with a smirk.

"I take back what I said," Josh said and closed the book that he was using as a reference. "We're going to have to take a break, because I can't let that one slide." Josh said and jumped the bed where he immediately started tickling Maya who did her best to escape the onslaught.

"Josh! Please! We have to get back to the schoolwork!" she tried as an excuse, but Josh wouldn't listen.

"Oh really?" he asked and stopped his tickling, though he still didn't let her go. His face was just a few centimeters away from hers. "are you sure that that's what you really want?"

"Well no, but I thought that that was what you wanted?"

"It was, but right now I'd rather stay here for a while, with the girl that I love." Maya took a good long look at Josh and studied his face.

"Come over here" she told him and pulled him even closer so that their lips met in a kiss. Maya's books fell to the ground, left completely forgotten.

* * *

They didn't end up finishing their schoolwork until much later that day. Josh had to admit that he didn't mind the disruption. There was something about his relationship with Maya that had changed. It had definitely changed for the better. Although Josh was certain that he would never find a girl that he felt the same about as Maya, there was something about the way that things had changed that gave him a sense of security that he hadn't felt before. He felt like he could take things at a slow pace. Like he suddenly had all the time in the world with her. He also felt completely certain that she felt the same way about him as well even without her telling her that she loved him. He knew that she was still thinking about it at a daily basis, but he really wished that she wouldn't pressure herself too much.

* * *

Maya was having similar thoughts when Josh left her dorm room that evening. She felt calmer, except for when Josh was tickling her. She knew that with the way that she'd been asking Smackle about the next step, she was looking really impatient, but with how she'd felt with josh while they were simply doing schoolwork, she felt no need to rush anything. Obviously she wanted to one day be able to tell him how she felt, but he knew and at the moment, that was enough for her.

* * *

 **Okay, so not quite once a week, but I'm getting back into it and it is definitely a lot better than last time I'd say. More to come soon. I'm also wondering if someone's picking up on the slight hint that I've left behind considering the amount of chapters that it's now in. Tell me if you think you know.**


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